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Protest these anti senior citizen decisions

The central government has now started attacks on the senior citizens by withdrawing the existing social benefits to them.

The Railway Minister has announced that henceforth the age for senior citizens for Railway concession will be 65 for all instead of 55 for women and 60 for men. The railways had already withdrawn the concession for the break journeys. In the same way, all senior citizens who had invested in Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, to a maximum of Rs. 15 lakhs, earning interest at 9.3%, say Rs. 1,39,350 per year or Rs. 11,662 per month, to manage a respectful living will now get only Rs. 10,500 per month. So also, the interest rates of small savings are being reduced at regular intervals.

We strongly protest against these anti-senior citizen decisions and demand the Central Government to restore them forthwith.

Sex Ratio at birth comes down in India

The sex ratio at birth  between males and females are going down drastically as per the report of the NITI Ayog. Sex ratio is the number of female child at birth to male child. It is the lowest in Haryana, 831 female to 1000 male! Next come Uttarakhand (844) and Gujarat (854). The sex ratio in Gujarat has fallen sharply from 907 to 854 in 2015-16.

Kerala’s sex ratio is 967, the highest. But here also, it is below 1000.

Such low sex ratio is unusual and probably the result of sex test of the unborn child. Such sex tests are banned, but continues. The government should act strongly.

Greece: WFTU in solidarity with the 35 trade unionists of PAME who will be on trial on 20 February 2018

 

The World federation of Trade Unions, representing 92 million members in 126 countries all over the world, expresses its internationalist solidarity to the 35 trade unionists of PAME, member of WFTU, who will be again on trial on February 20, 2018, because they defended the workers’ rights against anti-labor measures announced by the Greek government along with the troika of the IMF, the EU and the Central European Bank, by organizing a sit-in at the Ministry of Labor on 30th of January 2013.

The 35 PAME cadres, who are Presidents, Leaders of National Federations and Regional Trade Union Centers, members of trade unions of various sectors, had already been on a first trial during the government of the anti-labor ND, and they had been acquitted while all accusations against them had been rejected.

Now the coalition government of SYRIZA and of the far-right party ANEL takes the PAME leaders to court once again.

The SYRIZA government, along with ANEL and ND, after the law which limits the right to strike , continues the attacks against the trade union organization and the struggles of the workers. They proceed to new anti-labor measures like the auctions of the workers’ houses, new taxes and cuts in wages and pensions, aiming at the profitability of the Greek industrialists and ship-owners.

The WFTU stands by the side of PAME and demands from the Greek government to definitively stop the prosecution of the 35 trade union leaders, among whom our colleague George Perros, Vice-president of the WFTU and head of PAME. The WFTU will continue supporting the struggles of the workers of Greece against the anti-labor policies of the European Union, the IMF and of all the governments up to now.

THE SECRETARIAT

Provisional Pension granted prior 1.1.2016 to be revised soon

No.38/49/16-P&PW (A)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions
Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan
Khan Market, New Delhi

Dated the 12th February, 2018

Office Memorandum

Sub:- Revision of provisional pension sanctioned under Rule 69 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 [ what this rule Says ? Read]

The undersigned is directed to say that in implementation of the decision taken on the recommendations of the 7th CPC, orders were issued vide this Departments’ OM No. 38/37/2016-P&PW (A)(ii) dated 04.08.2016 for revision of pension of pre-2016 pensioners/family pensioners w.e.f. 01.01.2016 by multiplying the pre-revised pension/family pension by a factor of 2.57. Subsequently, vide OM No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 12.05.2017, it has been decided that the pension/family pension of all Central civil pensioners/family pensioners, who retired/died prior to 01.01.2016, may be revised w.e.f. 01.01.2016 by notionally fixing their pay in the pay matrix recommended by the 7th CPC in the level corresponding to the pay in the pay scale/pay band and grade pay at which they retired/died.

2. Instructions were issued vide this Department’s OM of even number dated 30.11.2016 for extending the benefit of OM dated 4.8.2016 to the following categories of pensioners drawing provisional pension under Rule-69 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.

(i) Retired before 1.1.2016 and sanctioned provisional pension under Rule-69 of the CCS (Pension) Rules on account of departmental/judicial proceedings or suspension.

(ii) Suspended before 1.1.2016 and sanctioned provisional pension, based on their pre-revised pay under Rule-69 of the CCS (Pension) Rules on retirement on or after 1.1.2016.

3. It has now been decided that provisional pension sanctioned in the above cases may be revised w.e.f. 1.1.2016 in accordance with the instructions contained in this Department’s OM No. 38/37/2016-P&PW(A) dated 12th May, 2017. Higher of the two formulations i.e. OM dated 4.8.2016 or OM dated 12.5.2017 would be the revised provisional pension w.e.f. 1.1.2016 in such cases.

4. This issues with the approval of Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance ID No. 1(21)/E-V/2016 dated 15.01.2018

5. Hindi version will follow.

What Rule 69 of CCS (Pension) Rules 1972 says..(Click here to Read)

(Harjit Singh)
Directo

Lalit Modi,Vijay Mallya and now Nirav Modi – Loot and leave continues unabated.

 

The serial ‘Looting and leaving’ the country continues with the full knowledge of the Government, whether UPA or NDA.

Looting the country, the banks and the hard earned money of the common people and then leaving the country with the connivance of the ruling party and government continues. Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya and now Nirav Modi. Whether UPA or NDA, there is no difference. These looters have high level political connections even with the Prime Ministers, what to say about other leaders. It is reported that even after FIR was filed against Nirav Mody, he was present in the Davos meet and photographed with Narendra Modi, Prime Minister! Look out notices will be issued when the scam is exposed, but well before that these barons will leave for foreign countries with the loot. Case will be filed, it will continue for years with out any decision and at last people will forget and these cheats will return and continue further loot.

They will never be caught because the rulers will be exposed when the looters open their mouth. Hence it becomes the necessity of the powers be that these looters are not caught. They are allowed to escape unscathed.

Can this situation be allowed to continue?

BSNL adds 4,21,836 connections in December 2017 and retained its subscriber base of 100 million.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today released its Subscription Data for December 2017 and the top five telecom operators in the country showed positive growth. State-run telco, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) added 421,836 new subscribers in the month and retained its 100 million subscriber base too. However, MTNL lost 6561 subscribers in the month. Leading telecom operator, Bharti Airtel added just 576,575 subscribers during the month, which is rather a small number by its standards. Reliance Jio has added a whopping eight million new customers in the month, followed by Idea Cellular with 2.4 million new subscribers and Vodafone with 1.5 million. (Press report)

Despite fierce competition from Reliance Jio,BSNL has done well. Congratulations!

TELECOM MINISTRY SHOULD COME FORWARD TO SETTLE WAGE REVISION AND PENSION REVISION.

BSNL employees, both executives and non-executives coming to about two lakhs are on continuous agitation for about one year demanding  WAGE REVISION AND PENSION REVISION with effect from 01-01-2017. A Joint strike participated by almost the entire work force was also organised. The latest is the ‘Satyagraha’ for 5 days and the ‘work according to rule’ programme which is continuing. AIBDPA has also conducted a phased programme  of agitation participated by tens of thousands of pensioners

BSNL, which was in loss for 5-6 years had started picking up with the initiative of the unions/associations and is in operative profit for the last three years.  Even otherwise the profitablity alone can not be considered in a PSU like BSNL, which implementing the policy of the government for full connectivity to the nation, which entails loss to the PSU. For the pension revision, no profit/loss conditions are applicable, as the pension is being paid by the government.

BSNL Management has already intimated Department of Telecom that it is prepared for wage revision. But the DOT and the Communications Minister is keeping silent.

This is unfortunate and completely not acceptable. The minister should take necessary decision and start the process of implementing the wage revision and pension revision at the earliest.

Insurance PSUs Merger – A plan for destruction?

The government is proposing one more merger of PSUs. This time it is the merger of the General Insurance PSUs viz. National Insurance Company Limited, United India Insurance Company Limited and Oriental Insurance Company Limited. After the merger, the report says, it will be listed for disinvestment. The New India Insurance Company, the country’s biggest general insurance company already stands disinvested.

In the name of making bigger and better companies, all the mergers of PSUs so far done have been disasters.  Merger of Air India and Indian Airlines made the PSU loss making. Merger of its associated banks with State bank of India resulted in loss for State Bank, which was unprecedented. Now the present proposed merger is not going to be different. This is intended to give benefit to the private insurance companies as was the case with the earlier mergers.

The reaction of the Unions of the Insurance companies is yet to come.

NAGERCOIL SPECIAL GENERAL BODY MEETING HELD ON 12-02-2018

Com.K.Kaliprasad, CHQ Organising Secretary inaugurated the Special General body meeting of Nagercoil District held at YMCA hall on 12-02-2018. Com.V.Sankaralingam, District Vice President presided over the meeting. Com.Meenakshisundaram, District Secretary welcomed the gathering. Coms. D.Gopalan, District Secretary, Tirunelveli and P.Ramar, District Secretary, Tuticorin also addressed. Com.C.K.Narasimhan delivered the keynote address covering all the issues.