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Brief of 27th SCOVA Meeting
The 27th meeting of SCOVA was held at Vigyan Bhawan on 13th Oct,15 at 11 hrs. The meeting was Chaired by Dr. Jitendra Singh , the Uninon Minister of State(IndependentCharge) for DoNER,Public Grievances & Pension, Atomic Energy and Space . Mr. Harjit Singh ,Joint Secretary ,(P&PW) submitted his welcome address to the house . After that all the Delegates attended the meeting introduced themselves, while as per programme Introductory remarks were placed by Secretary(P&PW).Later Hon’ble MOS(PP), Chairman SCOVA, addressed the meeting. He said that retired employees should become torch bearers of Start-up-India, Stand-up India initiative. Addressing the meeting, he called upon the pensioners to involve their vast experience and resources to assume the role of job creators. He said that the pendency without reason has to be taken care of completely. Sri Devendra Choudhury, Secretary DOP&PW beside others stated that department of P&PW has set a deadline of one months time during which backlog of 2200 pending pension grievances will be settled. He referred several welfare projects of GOI. It is reported that 19 Pensioners Association registered themselves under the initiative Sankalp.After his deliberation discussion was held on ATR on the points raised in the 26th Meeting of SCOVA and on Fresh Agenda items. The brief of the discussions appended below.
ATR of the 26th Meeting of SCOVA:
Item 1. Sl. No.1 of ATR, Status of issue revised PPO : On item (a),(b) and (c) no comments from the representatives of the Pensioners Association. However, on Ministry of Railways , the figure shown is confusing and promptly brought to the notice of the Chairman by the representative of NFRPA. He questioned when it is recorded in 6th CPC report that the total numbers of railway pensioners prior to 2006 was more than 10 lacs how the total revised cases of railway pensioners can be 1,10,543. No positive reply was there from official side. As regards the problems of dispatch of revised PPO to the pensioners address for not having the present address,the suggestion of NFRPA to handover the PPO to the pensioners through PDA had been taken into consideration.
Item 2 Sl.No. 3 of ATR Health Insurance : No comments
Item 3 Sl.No. 5 of ATR : Special Family Pension : Concerned Defence Pensioners Association raised some queries and questioned which have been discussed and noted.
Item 4, 5, 6 : Nothing specific discussed, except some grievances on Medical issues.
Item 7 Sl.No.9 of ATR : On the benefit of Rs. 4600 GP. It is stated that the concerned file is still pending with Department of Expenditure. On being urged to fix a time line by the representative of NFRPA,Guwahati,Assam, it is stated that within 10 days the file will be returned with comments to concerned Department.
Item 8 to 16 issues related to BSNL, Ministry of Health, DOP&PW etc have breen dicussed by the concerned reprentatives of the Pensioners Associations.
On Fresh Agenda of 27th Meeting.
1. On issue of acknowledgement to pensioners submitting life Certificate : CPAO formulated a format of Life Certificate which had been supplied to the Delegates and stated that the format will also be available in the wwebsite of CPAO.
2. Extension of the benefits of OM dated 28.01.13 less than 33 years : Stated that the matter is subjudiced.
3. On health issues (27.3,27.4) : On CGHS facilities various discussion were held . On RELHS issue NFRPA has proposed to include SMART CARD issue in the agenda which have not been taken. NFRPA representative raised the issue of SMART CARD. But the representative of official side of Railways failed to give any suitable reply.
4. On illegal recovery of pension vis a vis reduction of pension : The matter has been refered to DoPT on 07.06.15. DoPT informed on 30.06.15 that the matter is under consideration especially on the issues of impermissible-ness of recovery based on the letter of OM dated 06.02.14 and recent SC Judgments. It is stated that order may be issued for implementation of the guide lines prescribed by Hon’ble SC. On being insisted by the representatives of NFRPA, it is stated that before 27th Oct,15 the order will be issued. NFRPA also requested to review the issue of reduction of pension in fixing the Minimum Pension which has been done in misinterpreting the contents of the 6th CPC Resolutions and OM No. dated 1.9.2008 and 28.1.13respectively, wherein it is categorically stated that minimum pension in no case should be less than 50 % of the minimum pay of the pre-revised scale of the corresponding scale from which pensioner had retired.
5. On implementation of circular of P&PW(A) No. dt 30.7.15 it is directed that revision of pension in respect of all the pending cases must be completed by concerned Dept. by 16.10.15
6. On facility for online railway booking : NFRPA representative requested to extend the facility to Pass holders also so that the Retired Rly Pensioners can also avail this facility.
S.M.Kanjilal
General Secretary(A)
78.2% IDA MERGER- MEETING WITH MEMBER (FINANACE) AND DIRECTOR (ESTT)
Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Advisor and Com.K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary have met Ms.Annie Moraes, Member (Finance) on 20th October, 2015. They had a serious and detailed discussion about the undue delay in finalising the cabinet note on 78.2% IDA merger incorporating the clarifications sought by the Department of Expenditure. The Member (Finance) stated that she had furnished all the data required to clarify the points of the Department of Expenditure to the Establishment Section but they have returned the file stating that whatever clarifications are sought by the Department of Expenditure are to be clarified by the internal finance of DOT. The representatives pointed out that for one or other reason the issue is being dragged indefinitely and the affected pensioners have become restive and requested early action. The Member (Finance) agreed to complete the process at the earliest.
Thereafter the representatives met Shri.Prachish Khanna, Director (Estt) also in this regard who also assured early action at his end.
BSNL to allow landline users avail free call benefit on mobile.
Shri Anupam Shrivastava, CMD BSNL has said that the Company is in the process of rolling out a mobile convergence platform by Diwali. This will enable consumers avail value added service in mobile phones, make free night calls from mobile phones if they have subscribed to landline and a host of other modern facilities, said the CMD BSNL. He further said that with this roll out, consumers would be able to link their mobile and landline accounts. The sync between the two accounts will be such that it will enable our subscribers receive landline calls on mobile phones.
(courtesy: The Hindu )
FORUM STAGES COUNTRY WIDE DHARNAS DEMANDING PLI.
Massive dharnas were organized in Circes / SSAs demanding payment of Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) / Bonus to the BSNL employees and executives. The programme was organized as per the call of the Forum of BSNL Unions & Associations.
At the Corporate Office premises, New Delhi, the dharna was participated by more than 500 employees. In addition from NTR and Corporate Office, comrades came in large numbers from Haryana and UP (West). The dharna was inaugurated by Com. V.A.N. Namboodiri, Patron, BSNLEU and was addressed by General Secretaries and Circle Secretaries of Unions and Associations. Com. Balbir Singh, President, BSNLEU, Com. K.G. Jayaraj, General Secretary, AIBDPA, Com. Islam Ahmed, President, NFTE, Com. Prahlad Rai, General Secretary, AIBSNLEA, Com. Aravind Dahiya, Joint Secretary, SNEA(I), Com. Suresh Kumar, General Secretary, BSNLMS, Com. Gautam, Dy. General Secretary, SNATTA and other leaders addressed.
KARWAR DISTRICT CONFERENCE HELD SUCCESSFULLY.
The biennial District Conference of Karwar, Karnataka was held with good participation of pensioners at Taluka Panjayath Sabha Bhawan, Karwar on 18th october, 2015. Com. S.J. Revankar, District President presided. Com.A.D.Vaigankar welcomed the gathering. The Chief Guest, Shri. Nazier Shaikh, DGM, BSNL inaugurated the conference by lighting the lamp. Com.G.G.Patil, CHQ Organising Secretary spoke elaborately on the important issues of the pensioners and the continuous agitational programs conducted by AIBDPA to achieve the same, particularly 78.2% IDA merger and Restoration of Medical Allowance.Com. K. Chandrasekharan, Asst Circle Secretary, Shri.M.G.Hegde, DGM (FA), and Com. M.M.Hegde, District Secretary, BSNLEU,addressed the conference. Com. C.R.Kalmane, District Secretary presented the biennial report so also the audited accouts by the Treasurer, Com.S.M.Gaonkar which were adopted after discussion.
Office bearers were elected unanimously with the following important functionaries.
President : Com. S.J.Revankar, District Secretary : Com.C.R.Kalmane and Treasurer : Com. S.M.Gaonkar.
Telcos will have to pay consumers on call drops, Re. one for one call drop
It is reported in the press that the TRAI is set to issue notification to the telecom companies to pay Re.1/ compensation for each call drop with a maximum of Rs. 3/- for a day. Though the telecom companies have protested, the large number of complaints on the call drops and also the assurance of the Minister that call drops will be reduced, it is almost certain that the TRAI will issue the orders.
Turkey: Protests organised by WFTU affiliates on Ankara Massacre
On October 10, during the rally organized by DISK, KESK, TMMOB and TTB, the participants were attacked by a suicide bomber and more than one hundred people were murdered.
Following this massacre, Nakliyat-İş has decided to stop working and make some protests and demonstrations on 12-13 October in such cities as Istanbul, Konya, Adapazarı, Kocaeli, Erzurum, Zonguldak, Karabük, Malatya in transport warehouses. Nakliyat-İş also made some demonstrations in some vehicle inspection stations in Istanbul and Bursa. Nakliyat-İş members in PTT and Municipality also stopped working and protested the massacre.
On October 13, 1000 Nakliyat-İş members in Topkapı transport warehouse stopped working from the early moments of morning and their union organized a march. After the march, Comrade Ali Rıza Küçükosmanoğlu, The President of Nakliyat-İş made a press statement condemning the massacre. Along with the flags of Nakliyat-İş, WFTU flags were also in the hands of workers in the first line of the protests.
In the statement, Ali Rıza Küçükosmanoğlu pointed out that the fundamental actor of this inhumane attack is The USA Imperialism and their “Great Middle East Project” which aims to divide the states especially in Middle East into many pieces. He added that it is time for Turkey to be divided into peaces after Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
Küçükosmanoğlu also stated that, as the government of Turkey, AKP has always been a faithful servant of The USA Imperialism, it is also responsible for the massacre in Ankar
WFTU Statement on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
16 Oct 2015
The world class oriented trade union movement, WFTU, the 92 million workers in 126 Countries of the world which represents have devoted all their actions in the eradication of poverty, not only this day.
Poverty, unemployment, wretchedness are elements inherent in the capitalist system. Billions of people all around the world live under the official poverty line. The capitalists’ crisis forces to the side more and more parts of the population, increasing the numbers of the poverty stricken, and on the other hand the antilabor governments around the world adopt measures to increase the capitalists’ profitability. The only way to fight against poverty is fighting the exploitation of man by man, is the class-oriented fight against capitalism.
We call all WFTU affiliates and friends to strengthen their fight, to stick their necks against the capitalist class. We are confident that the working class can and must organize in its trade unions, fight and build another society and economy that will plan production based on the modern needs of the workers and not of the capitalists. A society without poverty and unemployment, a society with equality and social rights.
Telcos can start spectrum trading as govt issues guidelines
Trading will allow operators to monetise their assets and reduce debt, thus helping the industry overall, say analysts.ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: The government has notified rules that will allow telecom operators to trade spectrum and stuck to its guns of taking the March 2015 auction-winning price as the basis for companies to sell CDMA airwaves that were allocated to them, rejecting a pitch by GSM telcos not to consider that as the benchmark.
In its notification Tuesday, which came more than a month after the Cabinet approved the rules, the government said that frequencies in 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands can be traded between two telecom operators only two years after they have been assigned, won in an auction or received through a deal. Spectrum leasing isn’t allowed.
Spectrum trading “provides incentives for innovation, better/newer services being available to consumers at cheaper tariffs,” the government said in a statement. “This also facilitates ease of doing business in India…” Experts said spectrum trading could ease the financial stress on some operators, allow others to add bandwidth and improve the quality of services in the world’s second-largest telecom market.
According to the rules, an operator wanting to sell spectrum that was allocated by the government needs to convert it into tradable airwaves by paying a market price to the government. Operators who won airwaves in the 800 MHz or CDMA band will have to cough up the difference between what they paid in 2013 and the March 2015 auction price on a pro-rata basis.
The Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM industry body, had written to the government saying that the 2015 auction price of 800 MHz in 12 circles where less than 5MHz of airwaves were auctioned didn’t reflect the true market price. The government did not accept its contention.
A non-refundable transfer fee of 1% of the deal value or the prescribed market price, whichever is higher, will be imposed on all trading pacts, payable by the buyer. The buyer and seller of the “right to use spectrum” need to give at least 45 days’ notice to the government before the proposed effective date of a deal.
Industry officials and experts have said that clauses on adding deal proceeds to annual revenue, which would push up payments to the government, as well tight spectrum-holding limits could dampen trading. The industry had said that this could see a 13% levy on the transaction for the seller – up to 8% as spectrum usage charges and 5% as licence fees — amounting to double taxation.
A pool of airwaves formed after sharing and trading cannot exceed 25% of the entire spectrum allocated in a circle and 50% of the airwaves in that particular band.
The government said on Tuesday that the buyer of airwaves needs to comply with spectrum cap rules as “declared from time to time.” The government has set up a committee to look into relaxing these caps.
The trading rules, coupled with the recently announced spectrum-sharing norms, will pave the way for consolidation in the fragmented telecom industry, which has as many as 10 operators in some circles, keeping calling rates at record lows and hurting the financials of telcos.
Operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Uninor and newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm can add to their spectrum holdings while others including Reliance Communications, Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Videocon Telecom can monetise their unused airwaves.