RAJNANDANGAON-DURG

RAIPUR

NEEMUCH

UJJAIN

GUNA

BHOPAL

GWALIOR

BHOPAL CIRCLE OFFICE

JABALPUR

VADODARA

SURENDRANAGAR

MEHSANA

RAJKOT

KUTCH-BHUJ

JAMNAGAR

Guwahati CEC gave a call for SSA level Mass Dharna against non-payment of medical bills with voucher, quarterly medical allowance without voucher and onetime payment made for CGHS membership. Though discussions were held at the highest level, including CMD, BSNL, no progress could be made as the BSNL management took a negative and technical stand rather than a humanitarian approach considering the miseries of ailing and aged pensioners. 

Northern states of the country are reeling under freezing winter and some other parts are affected with the riots on Citizenship Amendment Bill. Braving all the odds, pensioners participated in large numbers and made the programme a grand success.

CHQ heartily congratulates all the participants and the leaders who took the initiative to organise the Mass Dharna.

Some of the photos from Karnataka.

BENGALURU

VIJAYPUR

RAICHUR

KARWAR

DAVANGERE

The first Circle Executive Committee meeting after the circle conference of Chennai Telephones was held on 13-12-2019. Com.K Arumugam, Circle President controlled the proceedings. Com.V Kuppan, Circle Secretary delivered the welcome address. Coms.N Kuppusamy, Circle Secretary, Tamil Nadu and M.Kanniappan, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU addressed the meeting. The outgoing Circle President,Com.B Subramonian and Circle Secretary, G S Narasimhan were honoured in the meeting for their sincere efforts in strengthening the organisation.

The report and decisions of Central Executive Committee meeting held at Guwahati on 24-25 November,2019 were presented by Com.K Govindraj, Assistant Circle Secretary and the CEC decided to implement the struggles effectively. The meeting also decided to make the membership campaign among the VRS optees successfully. Com.G Damodaran proposed vote of thanks.

The National Secretariat meeting of NCCPA was held at AIRF office, New Delhi on 14-12-2019. Com.Shiv Gopal Mishra, President was in chair. Coms.V A N Namboodiri, Patron, KKN Kutty, Secretary General and S S Roy, Working President addressed the meeting.

The important decisions of the meeting are as follows;

1. Solidarity programme be organised at all districts on 07-01-2020 in support of the General Strike called by the central trade unions on 8th January, 2020.
2. Programme of action on the 10 point charter of demands will be finalised by the Secretary General and circulated for implementation.
3. Next National Executive will be hosted by AIBDPA at Ernakulam on 25th April, 2020.
4. To host the next Executive Board meeting of TUI(P&R) to be jointly hosted by NCCPA, AIBDPA & AIPRPA at Thiruvananthapuram in consultation with the General Secretary of TUI(P&),Com.Quim Boix on the dates suggested by him. 

From AIBDPA, Coms.V A N Namboodiri (Patron) ,K G Jayaraj (Deputy Secretary General), S Mohandoss (Assistant Secretary General), H S Thakur (Organising Secretary) and S S Maurya (Organising Secretary) participated in the meeting.

Coms.V A N Namboodiri, Advisor and K G Jayaraj, General Secretary met Shri P K Sinha, Member (Finance) and Shri.Amitab Sinha, DDG (Accounts), Department of Telecommunications on 16th December,2019 and had a detailed discussion on processing of pension papers and timely disbursement of pension to all the VRS retirees, numbering 78,569. The delegation pointed out that our CCA offices are not equipped with the infrastructure and staff to deal with such a huge workload which unusual and unprecedented . We are aware that some of the CCAs are utilizing the services of a few retired officials as consultants. However the facts remains that determining the pension in each case requires scrutiny of relevant records and time consuming. It is absolutely impossible to complete the process within the stipulated time. 

Therefore the delegation demanded that Provisional Pension be granted to those VRS retirees whose pension could not be determined at the stipulated time frame. Member (Finance) was very positive in his approach and agreed to consider the proposal favourably. He further stated that verification of service books is the main job in this regard and about 33,000 service books have already been verified in the respective CCAs and only Tamil Nadu and Telangana Circles are lagging behind. A high level committee of officers are constituted at DoT and the progress of work is being monitored regularly. The delegation appreciated the initiative and effective measures being undertaken.

The delegation also asked about the payments of ex-gratia to the VRS retirees and the Member (Finance) was hopeful of disbursement of the the ex-gratia in two installments, first in February and the second in June,2020.

<<view letter>>

It was on 17th December,1982,the constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then Chief Justice Y V  Chandrachud delivered the historic judgment in the case filed by Shri.D.S.Nakera. The judgment being called as the Magna Carta of the pensioners declared in unequivocal terms that pension is not a bounty but a right of the pensioners and pensioners cannot be discriminated on the basis of date of retirement.

It is also a fact that the pensioners in the country started organising themselves after this important judgment and fought against many injustices and won many a battles. But the government continues the attacks on the genuine rights of the pensioners and the PFRDA Act is the  real challenge to the entire pension community.

As far as BSNL and DoT pensioners are concerned many of the just demands, including pension revision, are still to be settled due to the negative stand of the government. So let us affirm to continue our fight against all injustices being meted out to the pensioners and the onslaught against the people.

Let us also remember the great man, D S Nakera for his heroic and relentless fight and observe the National Pensioners Day in a befitting manner.

AIBDPA had given notice to CMD, BSNL, as per the decision of Guwahati CEC, for holding Mass Dharna at SSA level on 17-12 – 2019 against nonpayment payment of Medical bills with voucher, quarterly medical allowance without voucher and onetime payment made for CGHS membership.

Coms. V. A. N. Namboodiri, Advisor and K. G Jayaraj, General Secretary have met Shri. P. K. Purwar, CMD, BSNL on 16th December, 2019 and had a serious discussion on the issue. The representatives brought to his notice, the sufferings of the ailing and aged pensioners due to nonpayment of medical benefits for the last one year and more and demanded early allotment of fund to mitigate the miseries.

The CMD had a patient hearing and stated that the issue is very much in his mind and definitely consider at the earliest appropriate time.,when the financial position improves. He assured that the reimbursement of onetime payment for CGHS membership will be made within January, 2020.

The representatives also met Shri. S. K Gupta, Director (Finance) on the same issue and asked the possibility of allotment of fund in the near future. He hoped that after February, 2020,when the wage bill come down by about 50 per cent, fund could be allotted.

SO LET THE DHARNA BE ORGANISED ON 17TH DECEMBER WITH MAXIMUM PARTICIPATION.

<<View memorandum>>