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KERALA CIRCLE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD SUCCESSFULLY.

The Circle Executive Committee meeting of Kerala was held on 09-01-2016 at K.G.Bose Bhavan, Ernakulam. Com.R.Aravindakshan Nair, Circle President presided. Com.K.G.Jayaraj , General Secretary inaugurated the CEC with an elaborate speech covering Inter-national, National situations, 7th Pay Commission report and modifications sought, current position on 78.2% IDA merger, Tirupati AIC etc. Com.P.V.Chandrasekharan, CHQ Patron, Coms.K.Arjunan, M.R.Chandran , Circle Patrons addressed. Com.N.Guruprasad, Cirle Secretary welcomed and presented the brief report for the interim period and the financial position was presented by Com.K.J.Sanal Kumar, Treasurer.

All the District Secretaries and most of the Circle Office bearers participated in the discussion.The CEC took the following decisions.

1. Banners/ boards etc be exhibited at all important offices on the All India Conference being held at Tirupati on 2-3, February, 2016.

2. Next Circle Conference to be held at Thrissur.

3. To conduct the accounts verification of District Branches in April, 2016.

Government Squeezes Profitable PSUs

The central government has decided to ask the profitable PSUs to pay more dividends this year. It has told these PSUs to pay 30% dividend, instead of the usual 20%.

Whether UPA or NDA government, both of them want to squeeze the PSUs and make them loss making. But they will never help the PSUs in distress or loss.

The central government is the killer of the PSUs. It is only interested in the growth of the MNCs and private companies. Of course, it’s motto is “Business is not the business of the Government.” Expose this anti-people policy of the government.

DEFENCE TO RETURN EXTRA SPECTRUM TO DOT.

 

Department of Defence is expected to hand over the extra spectrum in 1700-2000 Mhzband to DOT within three months, after DOT set up an exclusive defence network for its communication services. This issue has been pending for many years.

The vacated spectrum can be auctioned to the telecom companies for additional spectrum for providing services.

Railway Development Authority – A preliminary for Railway Privatisation

 

The move of the Government and the Railway Ministry to form a Railway Development Authority (RDA) is the next step for privatisation of the Railways. According to reports in Business Line, the government has prepared a concept paper on the matter and has invited stake holders’ comments.

Another report says that the Government is proposing to hand over 400 Railway Stations to private for modernisation as has been done in the case of Airports earlier. This is stated by Finance Minister Arun jaitely. They will be allowed to utilise the lands of the Railways for constructing buildings etc.

It is to be remembered here that the formation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was done in connection with the privatisation of telecom sector. Now it is the Railways!

BSNL to set up 40,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots in the country: CMD Anupam Shrivastava

Shrivastava said under the scheme, 500 Wi-Fi Hotspots have been set up in the country, and the company plans to increase them to 2,500 in the current financial year.PTI |

INDORE: Public sector telecom major BSNL today said it is working on setting up 40,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots in the country to counter its inadequacy in providing 4G data services.
“We are at present neither a 4G service provider, nor do we have the relevant spectrum to launch this service. But to deal with this challenge, we are working on a scheme to set up 40,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots in the country, as it (Wi-Fi Hotspot) is faster than 4G services,” BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava told reporters.
Shrivastava said under the scheme, 500 Wi-Fi Hotspots have been set up in the country, and the company plans to increase them to 2,500 in the current financial year.
He apprised that in order to improve its telecom service, the BSNL would be setting up around 25,000 mobile towers in the country, with an investment of Rs 5,500 crore.
On the issue of call drops, he said the problem is aggravated due to people’s misconception that the radiation emitted by the mobile towers has an adverse effect on their health, owing to which many such towers have been removed from residential areas.
The BSNL CMD further said that in FY15, the company achieved an operating profit of Rs 672 crore, and expects it to reach Rs 1000 crore by the end of the current fiscal year.
He said, “We are not just satisfied by increasing our operating profit, but we are also working on taking the company to a net profit position. We expect to reach that position by FY19.”
 
( courtesy : The Economics Times.)

Spectrum price recommendations for auction by mid-January: Trai

NEW DELHI: Sectoral regulator Trai will come out with recommendations on the reserve price of various spectrum bands for the next round of auction by January 15.
The Authority conducted an open house discussion today to deliberate upon questions regarding reserve price and other modalities of the auction.
“We had a very productive discussion with all the stakeholders today… so one can expect by the middle of January the recommendations from Trai relating to the reserve price of the spectrum bands for which DoT has asked for,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman RS Sharma said.
He added the stakeholders can submit their comments discussed today in the open house by January 7.
Trai had floated a consultation paper on reference made by the government to suggest the base or floor price for all available airwaves for mobile services.
Trai had sought public views on price of spectrum in 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz Bands.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) will commence the process of auction after getting recommendations from Trai.
The government had pegged a revenue of Rs 42,865.62 crore from communication services that include upfront realisation from spectrum sale and licence fee for the current fiscal.

(courtesy: The Economic Times. )

Ensure Minimum Wage of Rs. 18,000 to contract workers – Central Trade Unions

 

The Central Trade Unions, including BMS, INTUC, HMS, AITUC, CITU have demanded to the central government that the minimum wage for the contract workers should be Rs. 18,000, as calculated and recommended by the VII Central Pay Commission. They submitted a 14 Point Memorandum to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on 4th January 2016, when the latter met them for pre-budget consultations.

The CTUs demanded to the Finance Minister that the ‘Hire and Fire’policy should be abandoned and there should be job-security for the workers. They strongly opposed the policy of arbitrarily amending the labour acts without consulting the CTUs. They pointed out that no labour amendment law should be moved with out consultation with and consent of the unions.

Further they demanded that the ‘ease of doing business’ should not be connected with the labour laws.

The meeting was participated by Tapan Sen(CITU), Vrijesh Upadhyay (BMS), Ashok Singh (INTUC), D.L.Sachdeva(AITUC), Harbhajan Sidhu (HMS) and leaders of other Central Trade Unions.

TRAI firm on penalty for call drops

 

The TRAI has firmly told the telecom companies to pay compensation for call drops to the customers from 1st January 2016. The compensation for one call drop will be Rs. 1/- and the maximum for a day is Rs.3/- for one customer.

Telecom companies are avoiding payment stating that there is case pending in the court, on which decision is expected on 6th January.

The direction  of the TRAI has resulted in less call drops.