Team AIGETOA consisting of GS Shri Ravi Shil Verma, All India Convener Shri A A Khan, Dy GS Shri Pavan Akhand and AGSs Shri Vivek Kumar Singh and Shri Sunil Gautam met CMD BSNL Shri P K Purwar Ji on dated 29th November 2023 and had extensive discussions on the issue of Pending Promotions across various grades, Remedial actions pertaining to cancellation of the ALTTC takeover orders by DoT and the current status of 4G Roll Out.

We informed Hon’ble CMD about the current status of the pending Promotions across all the grades. We expressed our strong resentment on the casual handling of the Promotions (DPC as well as LICE) by Pers and Recruitment Section. We highlighted that despite promotion calendar being finalised and notified in March 2023 itself, it was unfortunate and sheer lack of empathy on the part of the concerned sections dealing with the issue. We told CMD BSNL that it was only in September that the process was initiated and responsibility must be fixed for the delay in the whole process. We told CMD BSNL that all the executives are feeling frustrated because of this inaction on the part of concerned sections. We said that this was the basic apprehension we have been raising time and again that in last many years of formation of BSNL and even at the time of DoT, department has always failed to conduct competitive examination in time and that has become a source of never-ending litigations on the various promotions.

We thereafter requested Hon’ble CMD BSNL for exploring the ways as suggested by AIGETOA earlier so that all the eligible executives can be covered for the promotion from SDE to AGM grade through SCF route, so that further delay in promotions can be avoided and justice can be extended to the candidates waiting for their long-awaited promotions since long. We also suggested the way out on how the promotions from AGM to DGM can take place and the consequential vacancies arising out of these promotions can be utilised for covering the promotions in SDE to AGM cadre and JTO to SDE cadre. We also requested CMD BSNL to direct Pers section to be ready with all the preparatory exercise in AO to CAO promotions as the judgement from Chandigarh CAT is expected soon. We said that BSNL must be ready to issue the promotions in AO to CAO cadre within a day as soon as the verdict is declared to avoid any further legal complexity. We also expressed our demand for executing JAO to AO promotions for the consequential vacancies arising out of the promotions from AO to CAO Cadre. We also highlighted that promotions in the cadre of PA/PS/PPS and CSS are also pending despite availability of the vacancies and the same must be done at the earliest. We also highlighted the plight of reversal affected candidates who have been waiting for their promotions since last one year and request his intervention in ensuring justice to the deprived lot.

Hon’ble CMD BSNL appreciated our concern and has directed the Pers team to submit a comprehensive report along with all the documents related to the status of the promotions and the corresponding show stoppers including the legal lacunae. CMD BSNL told that AIGETOA can also submit their inputs and after going through all the documents, all can sit together and find out the way for executing the promotions across various grades. We shall again be sharing the inputs to CMD BSNL and the methodology with respect to how the Vacancies can be utilised for ensuring the promotions across various grades. We also discussed the need for rationalising the LICE syllabus by making the topics optional and doing away with negative marking and implementing the percentile methods. We also emphasized upon the need for ensuring promotions through regular channel of Promotions and requested for ensuring sufficient number of vacancies by way of creating fresh number of posts. CMD BSNL appreciated our concern and assured that he will take the inputs into cognizance. He said he will discuss with his team on the way forward and emphasized that management is positive on the issue of promotions. He said that he has told his team to find way out with a thought that promotions will have to executed under any circumstances and if a positive thought is given, definitely way out can also be found out.

However, he was quite critical of unnecessary court cases especially in the context of AO to CAO Promotions, DGM Ad-hoc to Regular Promotions and JTO to SDE Promotions. We expressed that yes, we do agree that many a times, court cases derail the process but it has been observed at many instances that BSNL advocates appearing on behalf of BSNL also seek multiple adjournments on various grounds which further delays the process. At least BSNL CO units, circles and panel representing BSNL must be advised to not to seek unnecessary adjournments and that they must ensure filing of replies without seeking any adjournment. We expressed that we do understand that the legal process is slow but at least BSNL must ensure that there should not be any delay on their part. CMD BSNL assured to look into the matter. 

Team AIGETOA also emphasized and highlighted upon the need for making the pay and perks in line with the contemporary CPSUs. We said when government is expecting BSNL to perform and work as par with other leading PSUs, parity must be there with respect to benefits also. We also discussed the current status of 4G Roll-out and CMD informed that almost all issues are settled and hopefully 4G will be rolled out shortly. We however said that gradually employees are losing patience and hence immediate breakthrough in 4G rollout is essentially required to over come the root cause of BSNL remaining as a loss-making PSU which is not only harming the interests of BSNL but also resulting into negating of many dues and rights to BSNL employees including 3^rd PRC and residual issues of 2^nd PRC and Pay losses. We said association and unions can’t remain mute to this situation and hence all steps must be taken to ensure an early roll out of 4G followed by implementation of 5G for BSNL.

ALTTC take over issue was also discussed and CMD informed that he had already conveyed the facts, figures and BSNL’s point of view including the resentment of employees. He Said that all the issues have been explained at the highest level and its now for the authorities to decide on the matter. We categorically expressed that as a responsible association and as a responsible employee, we remain committed for ensuring the wellbeing of BSNL and we will go to any extent to protect the interest of BSNL and its employees.

The meeting lasted for almost half an hour and various aspects were discussed in detail and we extended our thanks to Hon’ble CMD BSNL for sparing his valuable time and appreciating the concern of the employees associated with the issues.

During the meeting with PGM Pers, team AIGETOA has requested for Clarification on the cut off date for the applicability of the new guidelines wrt hard, soft and semi hard tenure stations. After our consistent pursuance on the subject, finally Pers Section issued the clarification that the guidelines shall be applicable from the date of issuance of orders and for all the transfer orders issued before the cut off date, old guidelines will prevail. We are also pursuing to get the tenure period restored to its earlier period.

Click her for Clarification

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of AIGETOA, I extend my thanks and gratitude to you all for participating in 3rd MV process and exercising your right to vote.

We also extend our thanks and gratitude to all those who voted for AIGETOA and also done the hard work for the association which resulted into more votes than the paid membership count. We firmly reassure you all that don’t get disheartened by the results and instead let’s concentrate on resolving the issues which we promised as per the Shapath Patra 2023.

AIGETOA remains committed for resolution of the issues as promised in our agenda and charter.

At the end, as General Secretary of AIGETOA, on behalf of association, I accept the responsibility of this temporary set back and assure you all of my firm commitment to rise above this and work wholeheartedly for the cause of executives. I am confident that our rank and file will fight the issues with same vigour and resilience to achieve the unfinished agenda.

We also extend our congratulations and best wishes to SNEA and assure our constructive support on the resolution of issues.

With Regards,

Ravi Shil Verma

GS Secretary, AIGETOA

BSNL CO issued promotion of JTO (Arch) to SDE (Arch) in BSNL against 67% seniority cum fitness quota.

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Oceans are always Shallow and give salty water. Rivers flow and take u to destination. Rivers give drinkable water. AIGETOA is a river which will take all to destination

The three days Annual General Meeting (AGM) & One day CS-CP-CHQ Meeting was held at Hotel Grand Shobha, New Delhi from 20th to 23rd May 2023.

Day-1 & Day-2 of AGM 20th & 21st May 2023 at Hotel Grand Shobha New Delhi :

The meeting was presided over by All India president Shri G Veerbhadra Rao. All India Chairman Shri Ravi Shil Verma, All India Convener Shri P N Sharma, All CHQ leaders, Circle Secretaries, Circle Presidents and Central Collegiums Members of AIGETOA CHQ attended the Annual General Meet cum CWC Meet and also CEC meeting of CHQ – AIGETOA. President checked for the Quorum and it was found that the quorum was sufficient for carrying forward the meeting. In addition to the agenda notified, certain other points were also added up in the agenda as per request of various collegiums members with the permission of the chair.

Thereafter, the session started as per the schedule and Audited Financial Account for the financial year 2022-23 was presented by Finance Secretary Shri Badri Kumar Mehta and house unanimously adopted the Audited Report for the financial year 2022-23 of the association for further submission to Registrar of the Society and other needful action in this regard.

GS (IC) Shri Pavan Akhand has presented the annual working report of the association for the financial year 2022-23 in the House. House unanimously approved & adopted the annual working report of the association for the year 2022-23.

The various agenda points were discussed in length in the house and the deliberation held extensively on AIGETOA Organization issues, Pension related, PRC related, Standard Pay Scale & Pay Loss related, Restructuring & Promotion.

The day-2 of the AGM continued further with the agenda points, the Updation (addition/deletion) of Collegiums Members of the association, which the house unanimously approved & adopted the updated collegiums members of All India Central Working Committee of AIGETOA.

Filling of vacant position in AIGETOA after resignation of Sh Wasi Ahmad as GS was taken up in the house. After marathon discussions and with mutual consensus amongst all the collegium members present in the house, Sh Pavan Akhand Dy. GS who was discharging the duties of General Secretary proposed the name of Sh Ravi Shil Verma for filling up the post of General Secretary which was seconded by Sh P N Sharma, Convener. Thereafter, the collegium members present in the house unanimously chose Sh Ravi Shil Verma as General Secretary for the balance tenure of the existing governing body valid up to 13-03-2025.

Later on in second half of Day-2 a joint session was held with the CHQ & Circle Office Bearers of TOA & AIGETOA. Sh. Anil Kumar Tiwari Chairman TOA, Sh. T S Prasad President TOA, Sh. R K Upadhyay GS TOA, Sh. Sanjay Tyagi Finance Secretary along with other CHQ & Circle OBs were present in the meeting. GS BTEU Sh. R C Pandey was also present in the meeting. Our Sister association TOA has also decided to Join AIGETOA to strengthen it further and ensure speedy resolution of the pending HR issues and also issues related to BSNL. It was decided that all the members of TOA will Join AIGETOA in next membership change window while few have already taken offline membership of AIGETOA.

Click here for Glimpses of Day-1 & Day-2 of AGM

House also approved the nomination of following Members to the CHQ nominated committees:

• Shri Sanjay Tyagi, BSNL CO, New Delhi
• Shri Raj Kumar Upadhyay, UP (West)
• Shri T.S. Prasad Kumar, Kerala
• Shri Sanjay Kumar, BSNL Electrical Wing , New Delhi
• Shri B D Rawat, UP (West)
• Shri Vipin Sharma, Punjab

Day-3, 22nd May 2023 Open Session at NDMC Palika Kendra, New Delhi :

The third day of AGM begun with the open session held at NDMC convention Centre, Palika Kendra, New Delhi which was attended by General Secretary and other office bearers of BMS (Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh) and BSNL Management, Office bearers of sister associations and General Body and General Members of AIGETOA. HR issues and other BSNL related issues were discussed and a seminar was held on the topic India@100 – Role of Telecom Sector in attaining this divine objective on which dignitaries share their views.

The session was started by lighting of lamp and thereafter the vandana “Itni Shakti Hame Dena Data…” was recited by the gathering to infuse positive energy. All the guests and dignitaries were welcomed with beautiful flower bouquet and presentation of shawls & mementos. The welcome address was given by Vice-President Shri D K Sahoo who gave his thoughts on the topic of the session and invited all the speakers to deliberate on the theme of the open session. The Session was attended by GS BMS Sh Ravindra Himte, Director (HR) Sh Arvind Vadnerkar, GM Pers Sh S N Gupta and other dignitaries.

GS Sh Ravishil Verma in his key note address first extended thanks to all the dignitaries for accepting & gracing the OPEN SESSION of the AGM of AIGETOA CHQ as Special Guest. In his address he raised the complete extension of Superannuation Benefits (SAB) to BSNL Recruited Employees, Standard Pay Scale of E2 for JAO/JTO & E3 for AO/SDE, Pay loss issue of JTO/JAO, Promotions in the AGM/CAO Grade, SDE Reversal Issue, 3rd PRC, Group Health Insurance Policy by BSNL for all Employees, Revision of Transport Allowances, TA/DA etc. He emphasized to acknowledge that Human Resources are the nerve centres and architects of growth of any commercial enterprise. Non-resolution of critical and long pending basic HR issues is adversely impacting the morale and is distracting the focus of the Executives in a big way. Management needs to exercise a serious thought process and commitment to get the issues resolved in totality and within specified timelines. He further reaffirmed to ensure the resolution of long pending HR issues and committed that if things will not be resolved through discussion and persuasion, AIGETOA will not hesitate in launching organizational actions program also. Role of Association is to keep a close watch on all the activities in organization to ensure that actions which are contrary to the interest of BSNL and its employees must be opposed tooth and nail.

The open session was concluded with the vote of thanks by President Sh G Veerabhadhra Rao. He extended its thanks to the Organising Team and all those who contributed to the successful organisation of the event. The program of open session was meticulously anchored by our CFS RJ Sh Praveen Sharma.

Click here for the Glimpses of Open Session

Day-4, 23rd May 2023 Meeting of CS-CP-CHQ Office Bearers at Hotel Grand Shobha, New Delhi :

The fourth day session was mostly comprised of extensive discussion on various measures on organizational aspects of AIGETOA and further course of action with respect to holding of 3rd Membership Verification in BSNL. Various deliberation and discussion on service-related matter of BSNL held.

Click here for the resolutions and decisions taken in the AGM of AIGETOA

APAR timelines extended once more for a final opportunity to those who have missed the timeline. After much persuasion, our request for extension was considered.

However it may be noted that this is final extension and it may not be extended any further.

Hence all are requested to abide by the timelines and ensure that APARs are submitted. None should wait for any further extension.

Click here for letter

General Secretary BMS Shri Ravindra Himte Ji writes to the Hon’ble Minister of Communication Shri Ashwini Vaishnav Ji forwarding the Memorandum of AIGETOA and seeking his intervention in settling the long pending HR issues viz Standard Pay Scales, 30 Percent SAB, 3rd PRC to BSNL, Promotions issues, Issue of Seniority for the LDCE qualified Executives, Reversal issue, Revision in perks and allowances etc. GS BMS has also requested Hon’ble MoC for sitting together for a thread ware discussion over the issues raised in Memorandum by AIGETOA, so that a solution is found for the betterment of the work force which would ultimately make BSNL stronger.

AIGETOA extends its heartfelt thanks to the General Secretary BMS for taking up the issues of BSNL Executives before Hon’ble MoC.

Dear friends, this is a firm step towards resolution of our issues and with intervention at the highest level, we can definitely expect our PPP issues to be resolved in the near future.

Click here for the letter

As per assurance extended to AIGETOA in agenda meeting and subsequent pursuance thereof, management approves the proposal for laptop reimbursement to executives. As informed earlier that it will start from BSNL CO and shall be replicated at field units. Half of the journey achieved for reimbursement of laptop to executives of BSNL. We will ensure the same for other field units also soon. All the circle Secretaries are requested to meet their CGMs and get the same approved at circle also.

All circles may send the feedback from CGM in this regard to CHQ. We remain committed to resolve all the obstacles and ensure smooth implementation at all levels.

Click here for letter submitted by AIGETOA on 3rd May 2023

Team AIGETOA comprising of AIC Sh Ravishil Verma, GS Sh Pavan Akhand, AGS Sh Yogendra Kumar & AGS Sh Sunil Gautam met Dir HR on 19.01.2023 discussed issues related to OTP request transfers, modifications of Hard and Soft tenure stations for Uttarakhand and Karnataka Circles, left out JTO to SDE promotion, SDE reversal issue, left out all eligible SDE to AGM promotions, Syllabus and Pattern for examination.

On OTP request transfer, it was informed that Director HR has directed Personnel Section to process the request transfer cases and the cases shall be considered based on feasibility, merit of the requests and administrative requirements. There was a reluctance on the part of Director HR with respect to consideration of the request cases from Karnataka Circle. However, after our insistence, he agreed to consider cases from Karnataka also. It is expected that orders may be issued within one week.

It was discussed that all AGMs (those who already applied OTP request) who has been promoted in recent SDE to AGM will have to apply fresh OTP in AGM cadre by cancelling the old OTP request. Further, we requested for consideration of request transfer cases of SDEs wanting the transfer to Hard Tenure stations against the waiting list of JTOs wanting to move out from these circles through Rule 8. This way both the waiting list for Rule 8 as well as waiting list for SDEs for hard tenure will be cleared.

Further, we also requested to consider seeking volunteers for posting at deficit circles from all the cadres so that executives from long stay list can accommodate themselves against such circles voluntarily. Director HR assured to consider our suggestions in this regard.

On the issue of declaration of Hard Tenure Stations of Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Soft tenure Stations for Karnataka and few other places, It was informed that matter is under active consideration, discussions have taken place and order is expected in the last week of January 2023.

On Left out JTO to SDE, way out to promote 104 executive is under consideration and they will be promoted soon.

On SDE Reversal issue, it was informed by Director HR that issue is under active consideration. Association demanded to immediately settle the issue without any further delay. Director HR appreciated our concern.

On PWD issue, clarity will be there once Hon’ble PCAT decides the issue. However, the seats have been kept reserved for them.

Promotion for left out SDE to AGM all eligible: The issue was once again discussed at length and we shared once again the complete road map to achieve the objective. We shared the vacancy calculations and necessary steps, how stagnation criteria can be inserted by discussion with all stake holders and how objections of other stake holders can be taken care of was also discussed. We also highlighted that the Manpower Plan devised for BharatNet project is not as per the operational norms approved by BSNL Board and the same needs a correction with more number of SDEs, AGMs and DGMs post be deployed for the purpose. Further we emphasized that there is need for exclusive manpower deployment for 4G saturation project also. By this way enough posts can be created and there shall be a smooth path for not only these executives who are currently eligible but it will create a path for future SDEs also. Though, Director HR was positive on the issue but any final decision shall be taken only after discussions with CMD BSNL. We have shared the agenda points on this issue to Hon’ble CMD BSNL and his time slot for the aforesaid discussion is awaited.

We also discussed on the Syllabus and Pattern for examination. We suggested that the syllabus should be designed in such a way that it assesses the executives based on their competence, management skills and leadership qualities instead of testing the bookish knowledge. Director HR appreciated our view and told that committee formed for the purpose shall take the inputs from AIGETOA before moving forward on anything.