All India Consumer Price Index (Ind. Workers) for the month of October 2017 is declared as 287.

It was 285 for the previous month. The Index for November will be declared on last working day of December.Then only we can calculate the rate of IDA from January 2018.

If the Index for November remains at 287, then the rate of IDA from January 2018 will be 126.7%.

If it increases to 288 point, the Rate of IDA will be 126.9%

In case it reduces to 286, the rate of IDA from January 2018 will be 126.4%.

We are happy that Department of Telecom has finally accepted our old demand and issued order on 22-11-2017 and the BSNL Corporate Office endorsed it today. In 2011, we observed undue delay in many SSAs of BSNL in processing pension revision cases and demanded that the Service Books should be shifted to CCA offices and also that the CCAs should be declared as Pension Sanctioning Authorities. Some CCAs were reluctant to accept the responsibility on the plea of lack of staff and lack of space in offices.

Now, DOT has accepted the suggestion and issued orders. In First phase, Service Books of CDA pensioners, retired from Telecom, shall be taken over by CCA offices. At a later stage, the Service Books of IDA pensioners retired from BSNL/MTNL are to be taken over by CCAs. Joint CCAs or Dy. CCAs are declared as Pension Sanctioning Authority for the respective Circles.

This new arrangement will, we hope, reduce delay in settlement of pension related issues to some extent.Of course, the DoT should sanction additional staff and fill up vacancies without any further delay to make the step successful.

The DOT order and BSNL endorsement letter are given here.

Click to see the orders:

sce-book-of-telecom-pensiones-with-cca.pdf

Tamilnadu circle held its Executive Committee meeting at Karaikudi on 25th and 26th November.

2 Photos

14th branch of Chennai TD Circle has been formed at Chengalpet on 27-11-2017. Com. Natarajan (GS), Com. Vittoban (CHQ Tr.), Com. M Govindarajan (CS CH TD), Com. M Murthy (CP CH TD), Com. Kannappan (Tr. CH TD) and other leaders attended the formation meeting and explained efforts being made by our Association on various issues.

The Circular from CHQ on Patna CWC is given hereunder.

Please click here to see the Circular delhi-meetings-and-patna-cwc-cicular.pdf

The Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Enterprises has selected the item of reviewing performance of Public Sector Undertakings and declaring those incurring loss as SICK.

BSNL is asked to submit its details. Accordingly, the Corporate Office of BSNL has directed all Circles to submit their figures immediately.

WE CONVEY THE SAD NEWS THAT COM. R K KOHLI, A VETERAN TRADE UNION LEADER OF INDIAN TELECOM WORKERS, BREATHED LAST IN NEW DELHI TODAY MORNING at 0900. HE WAS 82. HE WAS A TIRELESS ACTIVIST OF NFTE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS.

WE CONVEY OUR HEARTFELT CONDOLENCE TO THE BEREAVED FAMILY.

ROTTEN APPLES OUT

In NTR (Delhi) Circle there are 4500 BSNL Retirees eligible to get pension revision with 78.2% IDR.But only 50% of the cases has been processed by the NTR authorities of BSNL and forwarded to CCA. Whereas in all other Circles almost 99% cases has been settled. Why the delay in the capital city? Mainly because of some “understanding” reached by the then leaders in that Circle. ( There is an idom: "The rotten apple spoils the bunch.") These leaders have been working against our Association and working for the rival organization. They were working against the interest of BSNL retirees also. That is why NTR Circle lagged behind all others in settlement of 78.2%. When Com. Chhidu Singh was the Circle Secretary, he arrrangedd a HELPDESK before the CCA office to help the pensioners. At that time, NTR was the first circle in entire country to complete the work of revision.

Finally, in October 2017 the leaders who took over after death of Chhidu Singh showed their true colour and migrated to the other organization. Good riddance.

There are more than 13000 DOT pensioners in Delhi who are receiving pension through the office of CCA, NTR. So far only 1700 cases of pension revision have been cleared.

Patna CWC decided to co-opt Com. Anupam Kaul, a long time leader and Circle Secretary of SNEA in NTR, who became our life Member as the Assistant General Secretary.

Patna CWC appointed an adhoc committee with Com. P C Kaushik as its convener, to hold general body meeting of NTR district branch and elect new office-bearers.

TO JAGANNATH PURI

The CWC meeting held at Patna on 11-12, November 2017 decided to hold the next All India conference of AIBSNLPWA at Puri, Odisha in September 2018. It is assessed that around 1500 Delegates will attend the AIC.

Being old, all the delegates have to be provided some room accommodation for four days with toilet facilities. One day before the conference and one day after. Conference will be for two days.Lodgings and other expenses will cost about Rs 24 lakh.Food expenses can be met with the delegate fee collected from Delegates and Visitors.

DELEGATE FEE.....For the last AIC it was Rs 800 per head.This time it will be Rs 1000 per head.

NUMBER OF DELEGATES:..... As per our Constitution, a district branch (Base unit) can send one delegate for every 50 members or part thereof. The membership of each branch will be calculated as

No. of Life members as on 31-3-2018 + three years’ average annual membership based on quota received by CHQ.

Annual membership Quota (Rs 25 per head for the financial year of April 2015 to March 2016), Rs 20 per head for the financial year of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 shall be taken into account. CHQ will calculate the membership after 31-3-2018 and circulate.

PURI IS THE ATTRACTION:... Since the AIC is to be held in the temple city of Puri, large number of pensioners may be waiting to attend it. But we can not put too much burden on the Reception Committee. Hence, branches have to restrict the number as per constitution. Ensure that all branches pay the quota well in time so as to reach the CHQ before 31-3-2018.

This is advance information.There is enough time.

.....................................................

Dear Comrades,

Patna CWC meeting has given a call to branches to hold meetings on 17-12-2017 or any other convenient date and discuss the problems we face, specially our demand for a permanent system for periodic Pension Revision applying Central Pay Commission Formulae.

Importance of Pensioners Day is elaborately explained in the last issue of Pensioners Patrika.

In the meetings, Branches should adopt a short Resolution and send it by post to

(1) Shri Manoj Sinha, Minister for Communications (Sanchar Bhavan, Asoka Road, New Delhi 110001) and

(2) to Smt. Aruna Sunderarajan IAS, Secretary, Telecom (Sanchar Bhavan, Asoka Road, New Delhi 110001)

with due intimation to our CHQ.

RESOLUTION

====================================================================================

We are receiving enqueries from many comrades about review of the Scheme of without voucher for pensioners. A wrong information was given by some people that the matter of review is pending before BSNL Board.

BSNL Corporate Office in its letter to all Circles dated 13-11-2017 says that the scheme has to be reviewed after six months. Information based on financial implications were called from Circles vide letters on 17th April and 27th June. But reply has not come. Corporate Office has pointed out the complaints received from Pensioners organisations that in many circles even the first instalment is not paid.

Corporate Office wants status report immediately.

YET ANOTHER REMINDER..mrs-qa-reminder.pdf

CWC MEETING OF AIBSNLPWA WAS SUCCESSFULLY HELD AT PATNA ON 11th AND 12th .

RECEPTION COMMITTEE LED BY SHRI SHAMSHAD ALI, A K SINGH, H N SINGH, A K CHOUDHARY, R K CHOUDHARY, R N SINHA, P L SINHA A ND OTHERS MADE VERY COMFORTABLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR BOARDING AND LODGING OF ALL CWC MEMBERS.

OPEN SESSION WAS INAUGURATED BY COM. C SINGH, SECRETARY GENERAL OF NFTE-BSNL.

SHRI R P SINGH, RETIRED PGMT OF PATNA WAS THE CHIEF GUEST.

FEW PHOTOS ARE GIVEN BELOW. [Photos by Com. V V S Murthy, AGS]

INAUGURATION BY LIGHTING THE LAMP BY COM. C SINGH (SG, NFTE-BSNL), SHRI R P SINGH (Retd. PGM), COM. K MUTHIALU , SHRI D N CHOWDHARY(PATRON, BIHAR CIRCLE UNIT), SHRI SHAMSHAD ALI (CIRLE PRESIDENT, BIHAR)

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE DEPARTED...

WELCOME BY SHRI D N CHOWDHARY, PATRON, BIHAR CIRCLE

COM. C SINGH, SG OF NFTE-BSNL INAUGURATES THE CWC MEETING

P S RAMANKUTTY

D GOPALAKRISHNAN

G NATARAJAN

P GANGADHARA RAO

T S VITTOBAN

SHRI R P SINGH, Retd. PGM, ENROLLING HIMSELF HIMSELF AS A LIFE MEMBER OF AIBSNLPWA.

RECEIVING THE RECEIPT FOR Rs 1500.00 FROM COM. A K SINGH, CS, BIHAR

...................

SOME OF THE OFFICE-BEARERS PARTICIPATING IN THE DISCUSSIONS

CIRCLE SECRETARIES PARTICIPATING IN THE DEBATE

COMRADES OF RECEPTION COMMITTEE WITH P S RAMANKUTTY AND KERALA COMRADES

The 1000 years old Brihadeeswara Temple at Thanjavur (Tanjore), in Tami Nadu is one of the largest temples in the whole world. It is amazing, astounding, inspiring.

Now, we have an astounding, amazing district Unit in Thanjavur SSA. Today, our CHQ has received Quota for 270 Life members and Rs 50,000 as donation. There are 570 Life members in the SSA now.

We have already published number of photos of the great charity work undertaken by Thanjavur comrades helping the hapless people in orphanages, blind schools, old age homes etc.

I congratulate the entire Thanjavur Team.

PSR

The number of Life Members of our Association, AIBSNLPWA, has crossed 30,000. Originally we had only annual members.In the end of 2011, the CWC discussed difficulties of collecting every year the membership from pensioners residing at distant places, and decided to enroll Life Members. Within six years, the number of Life Members has crossed 30,000.

Tamilnadu and Chennai TD Circles together have 8000.

Andhra and Telengana together have 5700.

Kerala has 3800.

Karnataka has 2800.

MP, Odisha and Punjab have crossed 1000 each.

This is the great response from BSNL pensioners.

This is the real reflection of their great confidence in AIBSNLPWA.

We have been publishing in Pensioners Patrika details of donations received from branches on account of pension revision with 78.2. Our dealings are quite transparent.

Karnataka Circle leaders were bit reluctant to ask for donation because they collected huge amount for the last All India Conference. However, after seeing the response from other Circles, Karnataka circle sent an amount of Rupees ONE LAKH yesterday to CHQ as part of their donation. Some pensioners from Karnataka contacted us directly and informed their willingness to donate. We advised them to do it through their branch/circle only.

............... P S Ramankuty

Corporate Office of BSNL has sent another letter to all Circles on 1-11-2017 about pension revision of DOT pensioners granting the benefit of notional revision of PAY of Last Pay Drawn and finally fixing the pension at 50% of the notional pay so revised. according to the figures given by Corporate Office, there are 99084 DOT Pensioners waiting for the said revision. Out of that only 18444 cases have been processed by SSA offices of BSNL. Here also we can find the lethargic attitude of BSNL authorities towards problems of retirees.

For the figures please click on this link: dot-pension-revision-figures.xlsx

Yesterday, on 1-11-2017, BSNL Corporate Office has again sent a letter to all Circles about pension revision with 78.2% IDR. As on 31-10-2017, out of the total 133854 cases for revision, 6640 cases are not yet processed and submitted by BSNL SSA offices.Corporate Office has given the circle wise figures also.

Andhra, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, UP East, Uttrakhand circles have sent all cases.

Delhi Circle stands with maximum cases pending in BSNL office.

The Circle-wise figures of cases pending with BSNL are as:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Delhi: 2067

Kolkata TD: 1279

Panjab: 712

Maharastra: 695

West Bengal: 472

Assam: 330

J&K: 326

Kerala: 312

Orisssa: 118

Jharkhand: 106

NE: 90

HP: 52

Dir A/c: 52

UP West: 18

Gujarat: 7

MP: 3

Haryana: 1

Total 6640.

..............................................................................

Circles are directed to give due priority to the work and intimate the status position to Corporate Office by Fax every FRIDAY.

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According to Labour Bureau of India, the All India Consumer Price Index for September is 285.

For July it was 285 points.

For August also it was 285.

RAJAHMUNDRY (EAST GODAVARI) OF AP

HELD ANNUAL GB ON 29-10-2017.

CS AP, CS TELENGANA, DS OF EG SSA (COM. BHASKARA RAO) AND OTHERS ARE ON THE DAIS.

COM. SANNASI RAO IS RE ELECTED AS THE BRANCH SECRETARY.

THE TUNI BRANCH IN AP HELD A GB MEETING ON 28-10-2017. COM. VARAPRASAD, CS OF AP, COM. K S K RAO, CS OF TELENGANA, COM K VENKATESWARLU, DS OF EG ETC. ADDRESSED.