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AIR INDIA STAFF UNIONS PROTEST PRIVATISATION.

Air India staff unions write to PM Modi; flag concerns about stake sale

MUMBAI: Eight employee unions of Air India have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising serious concerns about the disinvestment of the national carrier and have sought an alternative revival plan.

In a letter, signed by representatives of the eight unions, they have also flagged possibility of job losses in case of privatisation.

Air Corporation Employees Union, All India Service Engineers’ Association, Air India Employees Union, Aviation Industry Employee Guild, Air India Aircraft Engineers’ Association, All India Aircraft Engineers’ Association, Air India Engineers Association and United Air India Officers Association have written the letter.

Together, these unions represent more than 10,000 Air India employees.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has sought Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential bidders for a 76 per cent stake sale in loss-making Air India as well as divestment of two of the carrier’s subsidiaries.

“We strongly protest Government of India’s move to privatise or disinvest Air India/subsidiaries as it is against the interest of the country and urge the government to review its decision… and explore the possibility of an alternative to disinvestment/ privatisation,” it said.

According to the letter, a copy of which has been seen by PTI, the unions said Air India can be restored to its “pristine glory” if debt worth Rs 30,000 crore is waived off or the loan is restructured and a proper roadmap is put in place with effective management.

Referring to the previous NDA government’s decision to sell two Centaur Hotels properties in Mumbai, the letter said there have been job losses after it.

“In our view, privatisation of Air India should be completely avoided with an effective revival plan with the participation of employees. It is also urged to write off/ restructure the loan for Air India revival instead of giving benefit to any private entity,” the letter, dated April 3, said.

Among others, the unions noted that the airline has never defaulted on interest repayments.

(courtesy:The Times of India)

BSNLEU CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING CONCLUDED.

The three day Central Executive Committee Meeting of BSNL Employees Union held at Agartala from 3rd to 5th April , 2018 is concluded successfully. The open session was inaugurated on  3rd April by Com.K.Hemalatha, President, CITU with an educative speech. Coms.V.A.N.Namboodiri, founder General Secretary, P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary and Swapan Chakraborty, Deputy General Secretary addressed.

The CEC deliberated extensively on the issues being taken up by All Unions and Associations under the initiative of BSNLEU and have taken suitable decisions.

PRAKASAM DISTRICT CONFERENCE HELD ON 04-04-2018

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Ms.Chandrasena, GMTD with the office bearers after opening the new District Association office

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The  conference of AIBDPA Prakasam district iwas held on 04/04/2018  under the presidentship of Com.G.Venkateswarlu. Com. S.K.Aziz,District Secretary submitted the activities Report and Com.K.Subbaiah, Treasurer submitted the accounts.

Before starting the conference, the newly allotted accommodation for AIBDPA district
association was inaugurated by the GMTD Smt.Chandrasena and in her brief message to the
members promised all co-operation from the administration in solving the genuine grievances
of retirees and sought the co-operation of the pensioners in the possible way to achieve the
targets of BSNL and all of us should unitedly work for the growth of our BSNL.
Com.K.S.C.Bose, CS AP Circle in his elaborated address explained the position of pay revivision,
pension revision, medical allowance, the social and political situation in the country and the
need of united struggle with All Unions and Associations in BSNL and the necessity to be a part
of main stream working class movement. Com. Ramachandrudu, CS Telangana explained to the
members the struggles of unorganised sections, adivasis and the recent long march of farmers
from Nasik to Bombay and the problems of cps pensioners and the need of united struggles.
Com.M.Yacob, President AIBDPA AP Circle enlightened the members on the family pensioners
problems, and the facilities  to dependent children, widow daughters etc. and how our
association is working for the retirees.Com.B.Veera Swamy, Circle President, Telangana AIBDPA
in his brief speech and inspiring song urged the members to work for BSNL survival and
nation’s development. Com. T.Dharma Rao,COS AIBDPA AP and General Secretary BSNL CCW&L
Union, AP Circle informed the conference about the recent struggle of casual contract
workers and the necessity of united struggle of working employees, retirees and casual contract
workers for the survival and growth of BSNL
The district conference unanimously elected new office bearers with Coms. 
G.venkateswarlu, Com.Sk. Aziz and Com.N. Sastrulu as President, Secretary and
Treasurer respectively.
Com.B.Subba Rao,ACS, AIBDPA AP Circle proposed vote of thanks.

CHERUVATHUR AREA CONFERENCE HELD ON 03-04-2018

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Com. Madhavan Maniyara, President, Cheruvathur Panjayath inaugurated the biennial Area Conference of Cheruvathur under Kannur District on 03-04-2018. Coms. P.V.Unnikrishnan, Circle Patron, K.Rajan, Circle Asst Secretary, K.Kunhiraman, District Secretary etc addressed.

Coms.Dr.M.S.Nair, U.Krishnan and K.V.Balakrishnan were elected President, Secretary and Treasurer, respectively.

BALASORE DISTRICT SPECIAL GENERAL BODY MEETING HELD ON 01-04-2018.

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A well attended special general body meeting of Balasore District Branch was held at Bhadrak on 01-04-2018. Com.Gadadhar Panda, District President controlled the proceedings.Coms.A Dhupal, Circle Patron, Adwaita Prasad Mohanty, Circle President, S.R.Das, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU, P.K.Nayak, All India Asst. Treasurer and District Secretary, BSNLEU, Jaganath Mallick, Circle Organising Secretary and Sreedhar Das, Asst District Secretary addressed the meeting. The leaders explained the current developments with regard to pay revision, pension revision and the efforts being made by AIBDPA and All unions and Associations of BSNL and the ongoing struggle to achieve the demands and to protect BSNL. The meeting concluded with vote of thanks by Com. Pratap Jena, District Organising Secretary.

Protest privatisation of Air India, the Jewel of the Nation.

The decision of the central government to disinvest 76% shares of Air India, the national carrier called the Jewel of the Nation, is completely against the interest of the nation and is part of the aggressive privatisation move of the government to eliminate all PSUs to suit to the requirement of the private corporates to grab maximum profits. There is no justification for the privatisation of Air India, except that by doing so, the private carriers will get a hay day for hiking the charges and garnering huge profits at the cost of the passengers.

Air India was one of the profit making excellent PSUs till the government merged Indian Airlines with it and ordered a large number of planes paying huge amount, when that much number of planes were not at all necessary and viable.
It is reported that the bid worth for Air India is fixed at Rs. 5,000 crore. With its large number of planes, the space it has got in all the airports, the machinery, the buses and other infrastructure, Air India will be having an asset of more than Rs. 20,000 crore at the least. Of course, privatisation is a process through which the valuable PSUs are gifted to the corporates for name sake price.

Strong protest should come up against this anti-people move of the government and the privatisation should be defeated.

There is no proposal to replace the NPS with old pension scheme in respect of Central Government employees recruited on or after 01.01.2004- says the government in Parliament.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 5486
ANSWERED ON: 28.03.2018

Scrapping of New Pension Scheme

Raghu Sharma
BHAIRON PRASAD MISHRA
SUKHBIR SINGH JAUNPURIA
MOHANBHAI KALYANJIBHAI KUNDARIYA

Will the Minister of PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS be pleased to state:-

(a) whether the Government has received requests for scrapping the New Pension Scheme;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the response of the Government thereto;
(c) whether the Government proposes to re-introduce old pension scheme in place of New Pension Scheme (NPS);
(d) if so, the details thereof and whether the Government has received request for the same, if so, the details thereof; and
(e) whether the NPS is more beneficial to the employees than the old pension scheme and if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE
(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) to (d): Representations have been received regarding the implementation of National Pension System (NPS) which, inter alia, include demand that NPS may be scrapped and the Government may re-introduce old defined benefit pension system.

Government has made a conscious move to shift from the defined benefit pay-as-you-go pension scheme to defined contribution pension scheme, now called as National Pension System (NPS), after considering the rising and unsustainable pension bill. The transition also has the added benefit of freeing the limited resources of the Government for more productive and socio-economic sectoral development.

There is no proposal to replace the NPS with old pension scheme in respect of Central Government employees recruited on or after 01.01.2004.

(e): National Pension System (NPS) had been designed giving utmost importance to the welfare of the subscribers. There are a number of benefits available to the employees under NPS. Some of the benefits are enlisted below:

• NPS is a well designed pension system managed through an unbundled architecture involving intermediaries appointed by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) viz. pension funds, custodian, central record keeping and accounting agency, National Pension System Trust, trustee bank, points of presence and Annuity service providers. It is prudently regulated by PFRDA which is a statutory regulatory body established to promote old age income security and to protect the interest of subscribers of NPS.

• Dual benefits of Low Cost and Power of Compounding– The pension wealth which accumulates over a period of time till retirement grows with a compounding effect. The all-in-costs of the institutional architecture of NPS are among the lowest in the world.

• Tax Benefits– Contribution made to the NPS Tier-I account is eligible for tax deduction under the Income Tax Act, 1961. An additional tax rebate of Rs.50000 is also allowed for contributions made to NPS Tier-I under Section 80CCD (IB) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

• Transparency and Portability is ensured through online access of the pension account by the NPS subscribers, across all geographical locations and portability of employments.

• Partial withdrawal– Subscribers can withdraw up to 25% of their own contributions before attaining age of superannuation, subject to certain conditions.

The amount of monthly annuity payable to a Government servant on exit from NPS depends upon various factors such as accumulated pension wealth of the Government servant, portion of accumulated pension wealth utilized for the purchase of annuity and the type of annuity purchased.

Under the defined benefit pension system applicable to Government servants appointed before 01.01.2004, pension is calculated based on qualifying service and the last pay drawn by the Government servant.