Coimbatore District Branch, the biggest branch in Tamil Nadu has held its 6th biennial Conference at the Recreation Club of main Telephone Exchange on 08-01-2022. Com. M Raja, District President controlled the proceedings. Com. V Venkataraman, District Secretary welcomed the gathering. Com. N Kuppusamy, Circle Secretary inaugurated the conference explaining the recent developments in respect of the issues of the pensioners. Thereafter Coms. K Pankajavalli, CHQ Asst. Treasurer and S Magudeswari, TNCWC addressed the conference. The report and audited accounts presented by the District Secretary and Treasurer were adopted after detailed discussion. Resolutions on important issues were also adopted. Office bearers were elected unanimously with Com. B Soundarapandian (President) Com.A Kudiarasu (District Secretary) and Com. N P Rajendran (Treasurer). The number of delegates were restricted to 150 in view of the Covid 19 pandemic.

A meeting of the NCCPA Secretariat was held online on 09-01-2022 under the presidentship of Com.Shiv Gopal Mishra, President. Com. K K N Kutty, Secretary General welcomed and briefed on the two agenda items. All the 17 participants aired their views on both the issues of Solidarity action to the two days national strike and action against the frozen DR of 18 months. Finally it was decided to hold massive dharnas at district levels on 22-02-2022 in solidarity to the national strike. National level webinar will be held by NCCPA on two subjects; (1) National issues and (2) Pensioners issues. Affiliated associations may also hold such webinars on their own issues. District level webinar be organised on 23-02-2022, the first day of the strike. The resolution adopted in support of the national strike will be sent to the Prime Minister. A Press Communique also will be released in this regard. It was also decided to seek legal remedy to get back the frozen Dearness Relief of 18 months. A detailed circular will be issued by the Secretary Genneral in due course. Representing AIBDPA, Coms. V A N Namboodiri (Patron) K G Jayaraj (Deputy Secretary General) S Mohandoss( Asst. Secretary General) and S S Maurya (Organising Secretary) attended and participated in the discussion.

Dear Comrades,The decisions of the Co-ordination Committee meeting held on 06-01-2022 is given in the circular. The most important decisions are to organise massive black badge demonstration and submission of memorandums to GMs and CGMs on 25-01-2022 raising four urgent and important issues, including immediate payment of medical benefits to BSNL retirees ending the discrimination meted out to the retirees. The second program is the signature campaign against National Monetisation Pipeline. All our units are requested to get in touch with the other constituents; BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF at the respective levels and plan to implement the programmes successfully.

The 6th biennial district conference of Thiruvananthapuram was held at Com. G Sasidharan Achari Nagar (P&T House), Thiruvananthapuram enthusuastically on 05-01-2022. Com. N Vikraman Nair, District President presided over the conference. Com. C Ramachandran, District Secretary welcomed the participants. Com. M Vijayakumar, former Kerala State Minister and President, Kerala Karshaka Sangam inaugurated the conference highlighting the importance of the victory of the one year long agrarian struggle and its impact on the future struggles against the anti-people measures of Modi government. Com.K G Jayaraj, General Secretary delivered the keynote address explaining the issues of the pensioners. Coms. C Santhoshkumar, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU, S Ashokkumar (Confederation) M C Nair (AIPRPA), P T Raju (CGPA), R S Binny (BSNLEU) and N Vamadevan (CCLU) greeted the conference. The suject session held in the afternoon was inaugurated by Com. N Guruprasad, Circle Secretary. Com. C Ramachandran, District Secretary presented the report and Com. Venugopalan Nair submitted the audited accounts. Intervening in the discussion Com.R Muraleedharan Nair, AGS spoke on organisational issues. The report and accounts were adopted after replies from the General Secretary and Circle Secretary. Resolutions were adopted on important issues. Thereafter office bearers were elected unanimously with Com. S Prathapkumar (President) Com.C Ramachandran (District Secretary) and Com. Sunilkumar (Treasurer). With vote of thanks by Com. Prathapachandran Nair the conference came to an end.

CHQ has been continuously pursuing the issue of non-payment of medical benefits to the BSNL pensioners as one of the most burning issues. We have discussed the issue several times with the CMD, BSNL and took up with higher authorities like Secretary, DOT, Secretary, DOP&PW, Hon’ble Minister of Communications, Hon’ble Prime Minister and recently the most hon’ble President of India. We have conducted many agitations on our own, then with NCCPA, Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers and Coordination Committee of BSNLEU, AIBDPA & BSNL CCWF. BSNLEU also took up the issue seriously with the BSNL management.

Now, the BSNL mangement has reluctantly allotted a meagre amount for payment of medical benefits to the BSNL pensioners. This fund allocation is not even sufficient to clear the reimbursement of medical bills of the pensioners upto 30-09-2019. Worse, in many circles, according to reports received so far, the optees of without voucher, medical allowance, are completely ignored. This has caused much discontentment and dissatisfaction among the BSNL pensioners. This is nothing but adding fuel to the fire. It has also come to our notice that in certain circles the names of the optees of without voucher (medical Allowance) are not entered in ERP resulting in non-payment. It is another form of discrimination and has to be resisted and defeated. Circle Secretaries are requested to collect the exact position and send the report to CHQ so that the issue could be further taken up with the appropriate authorities.