MEETING WITH CABINET SECRETARY

———-Empowered Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary has held first round of discussion with JCM National Council Standing Committee members on strike Charter of demands on 1st March 2016. Staff Side explained the justification of each and every demand and conveyed the large scale resentment among the Central Government Employees to the Cabinet Secretary . Cabinet Secretary has not made any commitment on any demand. He informed that this is only a preliminary interaction with the Staff Side.

Com. M. Raghavaiyya Leader Staff Side, Com. Shiva Gopal Mishra Secretary Staff Side and other Standing Committee members attended. Confederation was represented by Coms. KKN Kutty , M. Krishnan & M.S. Raja .

Meeting commenced at 0645 P.M. & ended at 0845 P.M.

Mumbai, March 1: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and investigation wing of the Income Tax Department found Mr. Karti, son ofMr. P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, has made investments in real estate assets and other businesses in many countries, including England, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, USA, Switzerland, Philippines, Sri Lanka, British Virgin Island, France, Greece and Spain, according to a report The Pioneer.

Mr. Karthi acquired all these wealth from 2006 to 2014 when his father P Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister. Karti’s company Advantage Strategic Consulting allegedly was also involved in the Aircel-Maxis deal. According to investigation agencies, the approval given for Maxis to acquire Aircel by P Chidambaram was illegal.

(WHAT AN EFFICIENT FINANCE MINISTER, SO DEAR TO AMERICANS, SO DEAR TO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES….!!!! )

According to the Labour bureau of India, there is no change in the index point of All India Consumer Price Index for January 2016.

It is the same 269 points as it was for December 2015.

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ANOTHER VICTORY FOR PENSIONERS ON FULL PENSION

We have posted the information on this website some time back about the CAT Principal Bench judgement dated 21-4-2015 directing the Government of India to grant full pension to those central staff who retired before 1-1-2006, with less than 33 years of service, but with 20 years or more qualifying years of service for pension.

Some other people went to CAT again pleading that the Sixth CPC had suggested to grant full pension on completion of ten years of qualifying service.The CAT Principal Bench, New Delhi delivered another landmark judgement on 21-1-2016 stating that people who retired before 1-1-2006 with ten years qualifying service are also entitled to full pension.

This will benefit large number of Casual labour and RMs who got regularization in Department of Telecom as well as many who got compassionate ground appointment but had to retire without completing 33 years service.

Government has not yet issued any order.

Both the judgements are attached.

full-pension-20-yrs.htm

full-pension-10-yrs.pdf

78.2% CASE

It is understood that the new Secretary (Shri J S Deepak IAS) wanted member (Services) to discuss details of the case. After sending the file to Member(S) asking to discuss, the Secretary has gone abroad. He will come back by end of this month.Then the Member (S) and DDG (Estt) will brief the Secretary about the case.

Our association has been making consistent efforts to have Pension Adalat at national level. Nobody else thought of it. We continued our efforts.Now, we are happy to announce that Member (Finance) has agreed to hold Pension Adalat at national level.

The sixth District Conference of West Godavari Unit, with 100 per cent Life members, was held on 21-2-2016 at Eluru.

The Andhra Circle Secretary Com. K S Koteswara Rao attended the meeting.

The conference honoured veteran members by placing shawls and offering mementos.

Conference elected S/s N V Rama Rao, R Ramachandra Rao and S Durga Rao as District President, District Secretary and District Treasurer respectively.

A special general body meeting of Mumbai Telecom Factory Unit was held on 22-2-2016 in the Community hall, Telecom Factory, Deonar, Mumbai. Pensioners of the Telecom Factory staying at far away places like Nashik also attended. It was beyond the expectation of the organisers. All India President Com. P S Ramankutty spoke on the various pending issues. Com. R D Prabhu, the District Secretary and leaders of BSNLEU, NFTE, BTEF etc. also addressed the meeting.

GUJARAT CIRCLE CONFERENCE

Then Circle Conference of Gujarat was held on 21-2-2016 in the Government Circuit House, Ahmedabad under the presidentship of Com. B K Bhrahmbhatt. Com. B N Parmar Circle Secretary presented the report and Com. P L Hirpara, Treasurer presented the Accounts. Both were adopted by the conference unanimously.

Com P S Ramankutty, Com. G Natarajan, Com. K Muthiyalu and Com. T S Vittoban, from CHQ attended the conference and addressed the delegates. They spoke on the present stage of various issues like 78.2, Future pension revision, BSNLMRS, Pension anomaly etc.

Com. B N Parmar, the veteran leader stepped down from the post of Circle Secretary due to his failing health. Com. R R Varma , a seasoned leader of erstwhile E IV Union is the new Circle Secretary.

R R Varma.

Com. B K Brahmbhat and Com. P L Hirpara have been re-elected as Circle President and Circle Treasurer respectively

MEETING WITH BDPA LEADERS:

In the evening of 21-2-2016, Comrades Ramankutty, Natarajan and Muthiyalu met Shri D D Mistry and Shri A A Patel of BDPA Gujarat and talked about issue-based coordinated actions to settle the pending issues. It was decided to wait for few days to know the outcome of fresh efforts being made by our leaders in New Delhi now.

BDPA has responded positively to our call for united actions.

Shri Kishan Singh, General Secretary of All India Retired BSNL Executives Association also has responded very positively for the issue-based coordinated actions.

United action by all Pensioners organisations has become inevitable when the DoT authorities are delaying the cases.

The Supreme Court has ordered RBI to share information about cases where loans amounting to Rs 500 crore and above have been written off by public sector banks.

Taking suo motu cognizance of The Indian Express report that Rs 1.14 lakh crore of bad loans had been written off by state-owned banks between 2013 and 2015, the Supreme Court Tuesday ordered the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to share with it names of all defaulters who owe over Rs 500 crore and continue to lead “lavish lifestyle”.

NOTE: The banks will not write off a single rupee, the ordinary people have to repay. But, there is another rule for the big guns in the society....

Finance Ministry wants all types of data to sanction a small increase in the pension of about one lakh pensioners.

These banks who have written off Rs 1.14 LAKH CRORE are working under the same Finance Ministry.....

It is understood that the new Secretary, Telecom (Shri J S Deepak IAS) returned the file on 78.2% to Member(Services) asking the Member to discuss details of the case with the former.

Change of Secretary has created unexpected delay in the case.

The Cabinet Note finalized in December 2014 is pending in Sanchar Bhavan for about 14 long months.

Today morning, we sought intervention of Mr Saravanakumar IAS, Private Secretary to Minister for Communications in the case of 78.2%.

He immediately replied assuring his intervention.

A WEDDING CELEBRATION

Com. T S Vittoban, CHQ Treasurer, celebrated the wedding of his son Mr Ajay with Ms Shrilekha on 10-2-2016 in Chennai. Large number of our comrades including GS , attended the function.

We wish the couple a long ideal and happy wedded life.

78.2% IDR for Pension Revision

The final cabinet note is with the new Secretary, Telecom. Once Secretary clears the file, the note will be submitted to Minister of Communications and then to the Cabinet. All the points raised by the various Ministries have been addressed in the cabinet note. The cabinet note also addresses the issue of 'the arrangement' made between Government and BSNL as required under Sub Rule 22 of Rule 37A of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972. However, the details of the new 'arrangement' proposed are not known.

The new Secretary Mr. J S Deepak IAS is not new to Telecom. He was Joint Secretary, Telecom five years back. He only wrote some letters to BSNL then on 60:40 issue involved in the Pension liability in Telecom. Hence, he must be aware of the background of the case. Our CHQ has addressed a letter to Shri Deepak requesting immediate clearance of the file. We are trying to have a meeting with the Secretary.

One extra Increment was granted to Grade III officials who did not get promotion to Grade IV. CCAs in seven Circles refused to count this extra increment as pay while fixing pension. Their plea was that with this extra increment the pay crossed maximum of the pay scale and hence it can not be taken as pay.

Kerala circle Unit of our Association and four members filed a case in CAT, Ernakulam. On 15-3-2012 the CAT gave a judgement and asked DoT to re-fix pension counting the extra increment even if the pay exceeded the maximum of pay scales. Four months time was given to implement their order.It was not honoured.

As directed by the Directorate of DoT, the Kerala CCA filed an appeal in High Court. In July 2015, the High Court dismissed the appeal. Even after seven months, the Court order is not honoured. Directorate has not given any instruction to CCA, Kerala despite repeated requests.

Almost four years have passed since the CAT judgement. Directorate is not responding to various communications on the case. Finding no alternative, our Association has filed a ‘contempt of Court’ petition against the DoT and CCA etc. The CAT, Ernakulam has registered the petition.

Our Vijayawada District Unit organised a special meeting of the branch on 7-2-2016. Com. P Gangadhara Rao, Dy GS was the Special Guest on the occasion who spoke elaborately on 78.2% case, the future Pension Revision in BSNL, the Pension Anomaly etc. etc. He narrated the efforts made by our Assoiciiaon to settle these cases.

Com. V V S Murthy (AGS), Com. K S Koteswara Rao (Circle Secretary), Com. M R S Prakasa Rao (Circle President), Com. N R K Murthy (Dist President), and Com. N S Sarma also addressed the meeting, attended by more than 450 members.

On 4th February 2016, the workers of Greece, in Athens city, organised mammoth rallies demanding a proper pension system ensuring social security. It was part of a 24 hours general strike organised under the banner of PAME, a left wing Trade Union in Greece.

[Courtesy: Trade Union International P&R]

According to the report appeared in Times of India, 45 lakh cases were pending in 24 High Courts as in June, 2014. It is not known how many cases are pending in various benches of CAT.

CAT was created as a mechanism to ensure speedy re-dressal of grievances of employees and pensioners in service matter. But, the experience is other way round. Many of the Courts are over loaded. 30-35% posts of judges are lying vacant for years together.

Only when justice is denied people go to Court. Going to the Court itself is the first punishment. Hence, everybody wants to avoid it.

If the court fails to give them the remedy in time, where shall the people go?

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Our AGS Com. R C Malhotra reports at 4 PM :

"The File containing the Cabinet Note on 78.2% has just moved to Secretary, Telecom".

A sum of Rs 3575 has been credited in the accounts of CHQ by the bank on 29-1-2016.

We are waiting for details. The branch which has sent the amount may please contact the Treasurer and give details.