People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 45
November 06, 2011
|
Vol. XXXV
No. 45 November 06, 2011 |
AIBDPA to Join Parliament March
THE All
India BSNL-DOT Pensioners
Association (AIBDPA) has asked upon all its units to actively
participate in
the countrywide Jail Bharo agitation on November 8, which has
been called for
by the national convention of eleven central trade unions held
at
The demands
put forward are of paramount
importance --- like effective action to control the spiralling
price rise, stop
to disinvestment of PSUs, implementation of labour laws, stop to
attacks
against trade union rights, ensured social security to the
workers in the
unorganised sector, ensured pension to all, revision of gratuity
rules, minimum
wages for the contract labourers, abolition of the limit on
payment of bonus
etc. The balance sheet of the neo-liberal policies, being
implemented for the
last two decades, is that the life of the common people and
workers has become
most miserable while the corporates and rich are allowed to
flourish by
cornering a major portion of the gains of uneven economic growth
of the
country. Corruption scams, black money and illegal exploitation
of natural
resources by the corporates have become the order of the day.
Therefore, the
Jail Bharo agitation, being conducted in this backdrop,
involving all sections
of the workers in central and state government departnments and
undertakings,
public sector, private sector, cooperative sector, service
sector,
manufacturing sector, organised sector and unorganised sector
units is
definitely going to be a signifcant milestone in the history of
struggles in
our country.
The AIBDPA
has further directed its
units to extend all support and help for successful conduct of
nationwide
strike on November 15, 2011 by the Joint Action Committee of
unions and
associations --- of executives as well as non-executives --- in
the telecom
major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The strike has been
necessitated by
the refusal of the BSNL management and central government to
desist from the
calculated move to eliminate the BSNL for the sake of benefiting
the private
telecom companies. The central government has successfully
subverted the two
innovative development schemes of the BSNL and now the
management has come out
with a proposal to retrench one lakh workers in the name of
‘voluntary’
retirement schemes (VRS) and has unilaterally stopped medical
allowance and
leave travel concession to the employees. No bonus is paid to
the employees for
the last two years. The Access Deficit Charges, being paid to
the BSNL by
private telecom companies for the use of BSNL equipments, has
been stopped and
the central government has taken rather forcibly from the BSNL
an amount of Rs 7,500
crore in the name of a notional loan. While the private telecom
companies
escape with payment of nominal licence fee for spectrum, the
BSNL is compelled
to pay the maximum. The nefarious game of the central government
to finish the BSNL
is quite evident from the above facts and therefore the
employees have no other
option but to resist.
The AIBDPA
has also decided to launch a
campaign week from November 6 onward, followed by a mass dharna
on November 17 at
district level, to press for an early settlement of the pension
anomaly in case
of those who retired within ten months of the formation of BSNL.
It has also
demanded withdrawal of the PFRDA bill, protection of the BSNL,
grant of medical
allowance a Rs 1200 per month to the DOT pensioners, restoration
of medical
allowance to the BSNL pensioners, grant of Rs 15,000 towards
funeral
expenditure, grant of Rs 5000 as festival allowance etc. It has
asked all its units
to organise the above programmes with massive participation of
pensioners.
Yet another
decision of the AIBDPA is
that its members will participate in the Parliament March on
November 25, 2011,
in order to protest against the PFRDA bill.
