Com. K. G. Jayaraj, General Secretary has returned to Alappuzha, his home town . He left New Delhi on 15th March, 2015 and reached Alappuzha on 17 th March.

During his stay at head quarters for about one month, he met a number of top officers of DOT including Shri. Rakesh Garg, Secretary, DoT, Shri. V. Umashankar, Joint Secretary, DoT, Ms. Annie Moreas, Member (Finanace) Shri. Rajeev Agarwal, Member (Services), DoT and Shri. Anupam Shrivastav, CMD, BSNL etc and discussed the issues of the pensioners,still pending unresolved. On most of these meetings Com. V. A. N. Namboodiri, Advisor has also participated and special emphasis was on 78.2% IDA merger to BSNL pensioners.

Meeting of Telecommunications’ Trade Unions from Europe On Saturday, March 14, took place at the Headquarters of PAME in Athens a meeting of trade union organisations from Telecommunications to discuss the coordination of the workers in the sector against the multinationals.
In the meeting which was hosted by PAME participated the trade union organisations USB from Italy,PEO from Cyprus and CoBas from Spain. The organisations agreed that it is necessary for the fighting trade unions of Europe to coordinate their action in a sector that is dominated by the monopolies, with hundreds of thousands of workers, who are, in majority, working as modern slaves, especially in the huge call centers. At the same time the delegations highlighted issues such as privatizations, the destructive role of the employers’ trade unionism and the persecutions against militant workers.
The organisations agreed in a series of initiatives, with main goal the need to organise a big meeting of the fighting trade unions in telecommunications, IT and call centers, which can be a step for common action. The delegations also talked about the need to open the discussion within the workers and the trade unions for Telecommunications that will not belong to business groups, but they will be property of the people and will guarantee cheap and quality access to the commodity of communication to all people, while at the same time will provide full-time, steady jobs, with full rights to the workers.

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Shri.Rakesh Garg, Secretary, Department of Telecom has stated today, the 12th March,2015 that there is nothing wrong in DoT finance’s directive to incorporate certain additional points as they want clarity in the cabinet note. He was replying to the complaints of unjustified delay in the issue raised by Com.V.A.N. Namboodiri, Advisor and Com.K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary during their meeting with him. He however added that the Member(Technology& Services ) has been instructed to over see that the redrafting of the cabinet note involves minimum procedural delay. He also talked to the Member (Services) and asked him to meet us and apprise the correct position. Though we went to his office,we could not meet him as he was in a meeting and the time was already 1730.

Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations has served the strike notice to the CMD, BSNL on today, 12th March, 2015. The two days strike on 21,22 April,2015 is for the revival of BSNL. The strike notice was served after a powerful demonstration participated by the staff of BSNL Corporate office and NTR. The demonstration was addressed by Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convenor, Forum, Com.C.Singh, Chairman, Forum & General Secretary, NFTE, Com.P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary, BSNLEU, Com.Prahlad Rai, General Secretary, AIBSNLEA, Com.K.Venkitaraman, General Secretary, TEPU, Com. K.Jayaprakash, General Secretary, NUBSNLW , Suresh Kumar, General Secretary, BSNLMS and others.

Demonstrations were conducted through out the country in which AIBDPA members also participated enmasse.

Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Advisor and Com.K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary have met Ms. Annie Moreas, Member(Finance) and discussed the issue of 78.2% IDA merger to BSNL pensioners. We had reported earlier that the DOT finance wanted certain additional points to be included in the draft cabinet note prepared in this regard by the Establishment section of DOT. Today we asked her as to what are the additional points and she has replied that (1) Financial implication for the implementation and (2) The exact position with regard to the 60:40 ratio. The Member (Finance) further stated that the the cabinet note should have clarity on the points and therefore the cabinet note has to be redrafted.

The problems at the DoT Cell ,West Bengal were also discussed and the Member(Finance) assured that regular CCA will be posted with out much delay. 

 We also wanted to meet the Secretary, DOT and Member (Services)  but both were in meeting and tomorrow we will try to meet them.

There after we met Shri.Anupam Shrivastava, CMD, BSNL and brought his notice
the unjustified delay in extending the benefit of 78.2% IDA merger to BSNL pensioners
and wanted his interventiion to avoid further delay.Restoration of quarterly medical allowance to BSNL pensioners and extension of broadband concession to the DOT pensioners were also discussed. The CMD had a patient hearing and agreed to look into the issues.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is looking for a new Chairman to head it as Shri. Rahul Khullar’s term ends on May 13, 2015. TRAI has invited applications for the post of Chairman and the last date of receipt of application is April 9. Government servants wishing to apply will have to take retirement from their current positions. The tenure of the post is for a term not exceeding three years or till the age of 65.

The first round of auctions for 31 coal blocks has surpassed the Centre’s  expectations with proceeds set to cross Rs.2 lakh crore, including the royalty amounts.

The sale of of blocks belonging to two categories- those already producing (18) and those ready to produce (13)- which started on February 14 ended on March 9. Bidding through Hindalco and Ultra-Tech, the Aditya Birla group cornered the most number of blocks, five. Naveen Jindal’s Jindal Power Ltd,Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group and GMR won two blocks each. The surprise in the auction is that Gautam Adan’s Adani Power managed only one ready-to- produce block despite submitting bids for all power sector blocks.

Coal Secretary, Anil Swarup said that there will be around Rs.97000 crore of additional benefits from the lower electricity tariff through the reverse auction of the coal blocks for the power sector.

The CAG had reported a loss of Rs.1.86 lakh crore in the allocation of coal blocks made with out auction which warranted the intervention of Supreme Court. The apex court had cancelled the allocation made illegally by the then Manmohan Singh goverrnment and ordered for fresh allocation through auction.

The strike by the Insurance Employees on 9th March against the move of the BJP government to rise the FDI from 26% to 49% was full and the striking workers conducted rallies through out the country.

As per CHQ call to organise solidarity demonstraion in support of the strike, AIBDPA units have implemented it in almost all the places. Com.S.A.Bilagi, Circle Secretary, Karnataka has reported that demonstrations were held in all the districts. In Kozhikode,Kerala a large number of pensioners participated in the demonstration and Com.M.P.Kunhanandan, CHQ Treasurer addressed.

The  World Federation of Trade Unions salutes the working women worldwide and reaffirms its commitment in the struggle for the real equality against exploitation and capitalist barbarity. A struggle which unites working men and women under the banners of the class-oriented trade unions.