Anant Mishra a gold medallist in MSc, from Rajasthan University, wore a black band at his convocation ceremony yesterday, in protest against the recent police attacks on students at Jamia Milia University and Aligarh Muslim University. Anant Mishra is pursuing MTech from IIT, Gandhinagar. He had tied the black band on his right arm to express his protest. He was arrested for wearing black band in the convocation ceremony.

[Curtesy: Times of India dated 20.12.2019]

As has already been intimated, the AUAB is meeting today to discuss and take decisions on the agenda items that have already been notified.

In the meeting held at the circle union office at Chennai yesterday, the Tamil Nadu circle union presented an apple iPad to the General Secretary. On behalf of the Tamil Nadu circle union, com. S.Chellappa, AGS & CP and com. Babu Radhakrishnan,CS, handed over the iPad to com.P.Abhimanyu,GS. "Our CHQ is maintaining a very effective communication with the circle and district unions, through website, email and Whatsapp, and this apple iPad will enable the General Secretary to maintain the communication in a more effective manner", said com. S.Chellappa, AGS & CP, while presenting the gadget. CHQ sincerely thanks the Tamil Nadu circle union for presenting this iPad and assures that the CHQ will live up to the expectations of the members.

The 7th circle conference of West Bengal circle, started jubilantly at Kolkata on 27-01-2017. Com Shyamal Chakraborty, President CITU West Bengal, inaugurated the conference. Com Saibal Sengupta, AGS, addressed the Conference on behalf of the CHQ. Com Om Prakash Singh, Circle Secy, Telecom Factory & Organising Secretary (CHQ), Com. Tapas Ghosh, Working President, BSNLCCWF, Com. Biplab Das, Secretary, BSNL Coordination Committee also addressed the inaugural session. A working women's convention and a seminar on the development of West Bengal Circle also took place in the Conference. Com Kalyani Chakraborty, Convenor, All India Bank Employees Federation, com. Animesh Mitra, CS&VP(CHQ) com. Banani Chattopadhyay, com. Jhumur Baandyopadhyay, com. Sutapa Roy and com. Mamata Sarkar addressed the Women 's convention.   The Seminar was addressed  by com. Animesh Mitra, CS, West Bengal circle & Vice president (CHQ),  shri R N Jha CGMT WB circle,  com Tapas Ghosh, CS, SNEA,  com. Ranjit Mukherjee, NFTE,  Com Arindam Choudhury, SNATTA,  and Partha Das, SC/ST Welfare Association.

The CEC meeting held at Agartala, noted with serious concern that, the BSNL Management is on an outsourcing spree. Each and every work, including those works which can be done by our employees, are being outsourced. May be “some quarters” are getting benefitted out of these outsourcings. It is an undeniable fact that huge money of the Company is going into the drain, due to these outsourcings. This has got to be stopped. So far as the Non-Executive cadres are concerned, Direct Recruitment is being made only in the JE cadre. But, no recruitment is being made in the cadre of Sr.TOA, even though acute shortage is there, due to large scale retirements. Hence, the Company has to go in for direct recruitment in the cadre of Sr.TOA. A lot of wasteful expenditures are severely affecting the finance of the Company. BSNLEU has already drawn the attention of the CMD BSNL, as well as the Director(Finance) on this count. We learn that recently, four officers from the Corporate Office, have visited Sri Lanka, in connection with a cricket match. This only shows that the top Management is in no mood to curtail wasteful expenditures. Instead, the Management tries to curtail the existing medical facilities of the employees, in the name of overcoming the financial crisis. The Agartala CEC meeting has decided to give a detailed note to the Management, demanding the curtailment of these wasteful expenditures. The Corporate Office has recently given an instruction to the CGMs to substantially reduce the number of the contract workers. Immediately, this may result in some savings. But, in the long run, this will seriously affect the quality of our services, since the contract workers are largely engaged for maintenance works. In view of the foregoing, the Agartala CEC meeting has decided to conduct a “Call Attention Day” on 03.05.2018. Lunch hour demonstrations will be conducted throughout the country on that day, by wearing black badges. The following are the demands for the “Call Attention Day”.

1. Stop the mad rush for outsourcing works.
2. Curtail wasteful expenditures of the Company.
3. Do not curtail the medical facilities of the serving and retired employees.
4. Do not retrench the contract workers.
5. Conduct fresh recruitment in the cadre of Sr.TOA.

All circle and district unions are requested to take all out efforts to conduct the programme effectively.

The AUAB is trying to have a meeting with the Secretary, Telecom, to find out the status of the implementation of the assurances given by the Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications, in the meeting held on 24.02.2018. However, so far no meeting has been granted to the AUAB, by the Secretary, Telecom. In today’s meeting, the representatives of BSNLEU urged upon the CMD BSNL to use his good office for arranging a meeting between the AUAB and the Secretary, Telecom. Representatives of BSNLEU pointed out to the CMD BSNL that, in the past also, the CMDs of BSNL have played crucial role in arranging meetings between the Unions and Associations of BSNL and the Secretary, Telecom. The CMD BSNL accepted this demand and assured that expeditious action would be taken in this regard.

The AUAB has given call to organise press-meets on 29-10-2018 and dharnas on 30-10-2018, demanding immediate implementation of the assurances given by the Honb’le Minister of State for Communications. Circle and district unions are requested to organise the press-meets effectively and dharnas massively, in close coordination with the other unions and associations. CHQ wishes to remind comrades that the press-meet and dharna are preparatory to strike. Hence, maximum efforts should be taken to organise both the programme most successfully.

The AUAB meeting is taking place today, to review the developments that have taken place after the deferment of the Indefinite Strike, and also about the future strategy of the AUAB.

The AUAB was continuously holding it’s meetings during the past 3 days, i.e., on 12^th, 13^th & 14^th March, 2019. The ongoing financial crisis being faced by BSNL, as a result of which employees are unable to get their salary and also the quality of BSNL’s services is deteriorating day by day, was discussed in detail. In today’s meeting, decisions were taken to protest against the anti-BSNL steps being taken by the government, especially the DoT, and also to make a massive campaign to save BSNL. The decisions taken in today’s AUAB meeting are enclosed, for the information of the circle and district secretaries. The decisions should be implemented in letter and spirit.

It is heart rending to know that 19 students are killed in fire, that engulfed a commercial complex at Surat, yesterday. All of them are teenagers and were attending a coaching class, located in the commercial complex, called Takshashila Arcade. 16 of these students are girls. About 12 students jumped off from the 3^rd and 4^th floors to save their lives. Among them, 3 died and the others were injured. The commercial complex, Takshashila Arcade, is having 3 storeys. Only one storey is permitted by the authorities and the remaining two storeys are constructed illegally. It has also been found that all norms of safety, have been violated. The Takshashila Arcade has been a virtual ‘death trap’ for the people. Similar ‘death traps’ are existing in almost all the cities in the country with no norm of safety being followed. It is the duty of the government to intervene and to ban all such ‘death traps’. BSNLEU pays homage to the students killed in the Surat fire and conveys it’s heartfelt condolences to their families.

Today’s ET Telecom has carried a write up about the press statement issued by BSNLEU, wherein the union has alleged that BSNL’s lands are being transferred to the SPV, at throw-away price. Responding to the report, Shri P.K. Purwar, CMD BSNL has refuted the allegation of the Union. He has stated that, "such allegations are baseless and incorrect since the valuation has been done on indicative basis for the purpose of preparation of cabinet note.

In it's press release, BSNLEU has clearly pointed out that, in the year 2013 itself, the Kerala government had paid Rs.15 lakh per cent, for buying land from BSNL's RTTC, at Thiruvananthapuram. Whereas, after 9 long years, the BSNL Management has assessed the price of 1 cent land of RTTC,Thiruvananthapuram at Rs.10 lakh. It is upto Shri P.K. Purwar, CMD BSNL, to justify how a land sold at Rs.15 lakh per cent in 2013 can be valued at Rs.10 lakh per cent in 2019.

The All India Centre meeting held today has decided to hold a meeting of the BSNL Working Women’s Coordination Committee (BSNL WWCC), together with the CEC meeting of BSNLEU. Accordingly, the BSNL WWCC meeting will be held on 05^th March, 2020 at Vadodara (Baroda).

The Labour Ministry has advised all companies not to cut jobs or salaries, including those of casual workers. In a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories, Labour Secretary Heeralal Samariya called for a joint effort by all sections of society to address the impact of Covid-19. He expressed apprehensions that the situation may lead to lay-offs or employees being forced to go on leave without pay. If a worker takes leave, he/she should be deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages for that period, said Samariya. Further, if a unit is made non-operational due to Covid-19, its employees will be deemed to be on duty.

By shedding blood and making immense sacrifices, the working class has achieved it's goal of "8 hour working day". The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in it’s convention held in 1919, has proclaimed 8 hours of work in a day and 48 hours of work in a week. Indian government has ratified this decision of the ILO convention in 1921. 

However, now, at a time when India is under the lock-down, the working hour is being silently increased from 8 hours a day to 12 hours a day. In fact, ever since coming to power, the Modi government has been seriously taking efforts to change the Factories Act, 1948, so as to increase the working hours. However, the Central Trade Unions have organised several strikes to stop it. Even on April 13, 2020, they have written to the Union Labour Minister, opposing the increase of the working hours.

At the same time, the Indian corporates, being represented by the CII (Confederation of Indian Industries), etc., are also mounting pressure on the government to increase the working hours. As a result, even when, the Central Trade Unions are resisting, many state governments, with the tacit support of the Modi government, have silently increased the working hours from 8 hours to 12 hours a day. These states include Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha. 

Many more states are likely to implement it soon. The Central and State Governments are utilising the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country today, and are stabbing on the back of the working class and are serving the corporate class. Now, the Indian working class has to fight back, to restore it's hard won right of "8 hour working day".

It observed that still certain circle councils, as well as a number of local councils, are not constituted. It is true that conducting of circle and local council meeting during this COVID-19 period is difficult. However, it is our duty to ensure that the circle and local councils are constituted by the Management without delay, so that the meetings can be conducted as soon as the situation becomes normal. 

To enable the Management to constitute the circle and local councils, the CHQ has to send the nominations. Hence, all the left-out circle and district secretaries are requested to immediately send the Circle /Local nominations to the CHQ through e-mail / whatsapp. CHQ will immediately approve and send back the nominations. It is also requested that the circle secretaries should immediately forward the Local Council proposals to the CHQ, soon after receiving the same from the district unions and that there should not be any delay on this count.

Many comrades are contacting the CHQ and are enquiring about the decision taken by the BSNL Board of Directors, in it's meeting held on 24-10-2017, with regards to the 3^rd wage revision. Unconfirmed sources say that the Board of Directors has approved the proposal to give wage revision to the employees, with 15% fitment. If this news is true, we welcome it. We also thank the BSNL Management for their efforts in this regard. At the same time, we would like to caution our comrades. They should not develop any illusion that wage revision is going to be settled, because the Board has taken a decision in favour of it. Even earlier, the BSNL Management has recommended wage revision to the employees, with 15% fitment. But, it was rejected by the government. As per the decision already taken by the Union Cabinet, BSNL employees are not eligible for 3^rd wage revision. Hence, CHQ calls upon the circle and district unions to strengthen the unity of all the unions and associations, and to prepare the employees for serious struggles. Only united and decisive struggles will get wage revision to our employees.