Team AIGETOA Shimoga TD, Karnataka met Shri Manish Sinha Ji Member (Finance) on 1st Nov 2022 at Shimoga during his field visit to Sagar Block Saturation

Team AIGETOA Shimoga TD, Karnataka met Shri Manish Sinha Ji Member (Finance) on 1st Nov 2022 at Shimoga during his field visit to Sagar Block Saturation

A detailed discussion on the matter of E2-E3 was held with the Hon’ble Member (Finance). Team AIGETOA at Karnataka Circle has submitted various inputs and justifications with respect to the proposal of E2 scales for JTO/JAO/Equivalent and E3 scales for SDE/AO/Equivalent to Member (Finance) and seeks his help to settle the long matter, which is to be approved by the DOT.

Member (Finance) has listened to the AIGETOA viewpoint very carefully & assured the AIGETOA team to help in the resolution of the matter.

The Team AIGETOA was led by Shri Kunal Kumar, ACS Karnataka who is also a member of the AIGETOA Pay Scale committee.

Click here for Memorandum Submitted

Click here for Glimpses of Meeting

Team AIGETOA Meeting with senior officers in DoT on 21.10.2022 and PS to MOC:

Team AIGETOA comprising of Shri Badri Kumar Mehta, Shri Vivek Kumar Singh and Shri Wasi Ahmad met senior officers in DoT i.e. Dr Mahesh Shukla Member Services, Shri S K Verma JS Admin, Smt. Roshni Madam DDG Estab, Shri Raiti Madava Rao Director PSU and held discussion in continuity of our earlier submission on E2-E3 Scale and discussed about the status of our representation on E2-E3 scale, which is to be approved by the DoT.

Click here for the letter

We taken up the matter of our representation with supporting documents on standard scale E2-E3, which was submitted on 23rd Sep’2022. It was apprised to us that the representation given by us has been processed as per request of the association to re-examine the case for approval of E2-E3 scale meant for JTO/JAO and SDE/AO Equivalent grades in BSNL. It is important to note that with the consistent and aggressive follow up meeting of AIGETOA on the matter of E2-E3 Scale in DoT has resulted in reopening of the case. The case has been reopened after a gap of almost 4-5 years by the DoT and it is going to be vital in coming days towards the permanent settlement of E2-E3 case for BSNL Executives. The file related to standard Pay Scale is currently with establishment Section in the DoT.

In the meeting with Member Services and JS Admin, we appraised the merit of the case once again and replied the queries raised to us. Both the senior officers have assured to examine the issue positively and see the best possibilities in the matter. Earlier we met the Director PSU and DDG Estab also on the matter and spoken in detail on the issue. Here onwards a regular follow up meeting will be held in the DoT towards every movement on the subject matter till final approval of E2-E3 scale is not accorded by the DoT to BSNL.

Later the Team AIGETOA met with DDG Estab and enquired about the SDE RR concurrence by the DoT as assured to us in last visit. She told that the file is with the section and it is being examined and very soon, the necessary consent will be sent to the BSNL after approval from the competent authority in the DoT.

We are highly thankful to the Member Services, JS Admin and Director PSU for accepting our request to reopen the case, an important step towards approval of E2-E3 Scale for JTO/JAO and SDE/AO in BSNL. Team AIGETOA extended Deepawali Greetings to all senior officers.

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Earlier, Team AIGETOA also met to PS to the Hon’ble MOC, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw ji for seeking meeting with the Hon’ble Minister in continuity of our previous meeting held on 29.07.2022. He was kind enough to discuss the matter and assured to appraise the request to the Hon’ble Minister and meeting will be schedule soon at his convenience.

Team AIGETOA Meeting in the DoT, New Delhi:

Team AIGETOA comprising of Shri Wasi Ahmad GS, Shri Badri Kumar Mehta FS and Shri Vivek Kumar Singh AGS visited the Sanchar Sadan, New Delhi to meet officials of the DoT for follow up meeting on SDE RR clearance and Standard Pay Scale E2-E3.

After approval of BSNL Board, the new SDE RR was sent to DoT for clearance to notify the RR. The association was continuously following up in the DoT for its concurrence as sought by BSNL. After continuous follow up the matter, Estab Section of DoT cleared and sent to Fin section for assessing any Pensionary liabilities due to the stagnation clause introduced in the SDE RR and possible conflicts with EPP if any. It is important to note here that SDE RR has a clause of the promotion from JTO to SDE through Personal up-gradation after completion of fix amount of period. In the finance wing, various queries raised and questionnaire sent to the BSNL. After following up in the BSNL, reply of all queries of the DoTwas sent last week. It was confirmed that the reply has been received in the DoT. Teams AIGETOA elaborated all replies in detail with the DDG dealing the subject in DoTand convince him about no financial outgo of the DoT on pension due to the introduction of the stagnation system as well as cleared other doubts also raised in the meeting. It was assured in the meeting to us that after internal deliberation, the file will be processed by next week positively paving the way for clearance of the DoT. In view of above, we are expecting notification of SDE RR by next month surely. Once the notification will be issued, the process of left out JTO Promotion to SDET will be issued immediately through stagnation clause and process for LDCE will also be initiated. 

The discussion on standard pay scale E2-E3 couldn’t be held yesterday as the Member Services was attending the ongoing session at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. So, nowthe matter of Pay Scale will be taken up next week with the Hon’ble Member Services

Minutes of Meeting held with AUAB by DOT

The DoT has issued minutes of the meeting held between All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) and officials of the DoT on 24.11.2021 at Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi. The minute has captured the written agenda submitted by the AUAB and the reply shared by the DoT. The minute carries the various issues discussed along with standard scale of E2-E3 but doesn’t mention SAB issue, which was also raised in the meeting. The issue of standard scale and SAB will be taken up further with the DoT in line with the discussion held on 24.11.2021. 

Click here for the minute

Meeting of leaders of AUAB with the officials of DoT on 24.11.2021

A meeting of the General secretaries and representatives of Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) held today (24.11.2021) with the officials of the Dept of Telecom at Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi on call of the DoT, where Sr GM(SR) Smt Anita Johri also participated from the BSNL side. The department of Telecom side was lead by the DDG (PM), who is also in charge of the JS(Admin) with DDG (PSU) and other officials. The AUAB was represented by General Secretaries of Associations and Unions in which AIGETOA was represented through General Secretary, Shri Wasi Ahmad. The meeting of Associations and Unions with the DoT officials held after a long time due to Covid Pandemic. The meeting deliberated on all agenda points submitted by AUAB including 4G roll out, 3rd PRC, Standard Pay Scale of E2-E3 and SAB to BSNL Recruits.

In the meeting, it was apprised that indigenous 4G Technology is the rout to be deployed in BSNL and government is ready to extend all possible support. The PoC with Indian Core through the consortium of TCS, C-Dot and Tejas has already been deployed and testing is going on in advance stage and it is expected to be completed by 31st Dec, 2021. The commercial supply and actual roll out of 4G in BSNL through the indigenous technology may start by July-August, 2022.

It was apprised that BSNL is unable to improve its financial health due to non availability of the most important services of the 4G, which is resulting in serious stagnant cash inflow and no major investment in CAPEX in aging network resulting in serious constraint in expansion of various services and finally the employees are the end sufferer in all terms. The debt on BSNL is also standing rock high and not settling in the absence of much talked Land Monetization and the payable by the DoT is also unaddressed. Similarly, other pending dues and support from the government as assured at the time of Revival Package. The employees are paying the price for the government policies.

It was apprised to us that the government is fully aware of the situation and committed to extend all due supports to BSNL, which is supporting country’s First Indigenous 4G deployment and so the government will very soon come up with a very good package for BSNL to sustain in the market. There were various items deliberated in the meeting including CAPEX of the 4G, Supported Transmission Network, Spectrum for 2G, AGR dues of BSNL, PS redemption etc. A decision in this regard is expected within December, 2021 itself, which will be helpful to BSNL. Further. The land monetization process has been started, which will pave the way to expedite it.

Discussion on 3rd PRC and Wage Revision also held but no assurance could be achieved in that direction and further dialogue will continue.

The issue of approval of standard scale of E2 for E1A for JAO/JTO equivalent and E3 for E2A for AO/SDE equivalent executives have still not been approved by the DoT as per the proposal sent by the BSNL on 06.06.2016 after its approval by the Management Committee of BSNL Board. Is a residual due of the 2nd PRC and resulting in the huge loss and demotivation to the initial grades of the executives? It was apprised that the PO released by DoT on 28.03.2017 was not implemented in BSNL on the ground that it was violating the DPE guidelines and degrading the scale of the executives. Hence it was requested to approve these two pending scales by the DoT at the earliest as 3rd PRC discussion is already going on, whereas our due of 2nd PRC are pending.

Thereafter the issue of Superannuation Benefit Fund (SAB) was raised to the DDG (PM) and apprised that against the 30% of SAB value, the BSNL recruited employees (executives as well as non executives) are getting just 21.8% (EPF-12%, Gratuity-4.5% & SAB Pension Fund-5%), which is a shortfall of 8.2%. Further it was started very late i.e. 3% wef 04.05.2016 and then 5% wef 01.04.2017. Whereas it was directed by the government at the time of formation of BSNL to make a mechanism of Pension for the employees being recruited by BSNL also as the employees absorbed from the DoT was protected Govt Pension through Rule 37A.

On these two issues of standard scale of E2-E3 and SAB enhancement, AIGETOA also submitted detail presentation and supporting documents to the DDG(PM) for consideration. The DDG(PM) was kind enough to deliberate it and further agreed to provide time to discuss on these two issues separately with the Recognized Association, AIGETOA. It will definably pave the way to start these two old issues, which is residual due of the 2nd PRC before implantation of 3rd PRC.

The meeting lasted for about One and half hours in a very positive atmosphere and started the dialogue process once again with the DoT. Although, no concrete could come out in the meeting but it has started the ball rolling once again for the various issues of the BSNL Sustainability as well as Employees matters.

Thereafter, GS AIGETOA requested for a separate meeting with the DDG(PSU) Shri Ravindra Prasad ji in his chamber to apprise the E2-E3 Scale issue, which he agrees and we discussed for about an hour on the issue and its journey from beginning till date. He is the officer dealing the subject from the DoT side. The meeting was very fruitful and further dialogue will continue with more submissions on the issue.

The Telecom Analytics for Fraud management and Consumer Protection (TAF-COP) portal by DoT

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has taken several measures to ensure proper allocation of telecom resources by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to subscribers and protect their interests in ensuring reduction of frauds. As per existing guidelines, individual mobile subscribers can register up to nine mobile connections in their name.

Website : https://tafcop.dgtelecom.gov.in

This website has been developed to help subscribers, check the number of mobile connections working in their name, and take necessary action for regularising their additional mobile connections if any. However, the primary responsibility of handling the Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) lies with the service providers.

The facilities provided in this portal are as under:

  • Subscribers having more than nine multiple connections in their name will be intimated by SMS.
  • Subscribers having more than nine multiple connections in their name can – Click here, to take necessary action.
  • Go check the status Click here to login with your number and enter the “Ticket ID Ref No” in the “Request Status” box.

DoT has released guidelines on Customer Acquisition. These guidelines permit registration of up to nine mobile connections in a Subscriber’s name – Click here

USOF signs agreement with BSNL for high speed internet access to North Eastern States

For making available high quality and high speed internet access to the States of North Eastern Region of the country, Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) has signed an Agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on 18.08.2021 for hiring of 10 Gbps International Bandwidth for Internet Connectivity to Agartala from Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), Bangladesh via Cox Bazar/Kuakata.

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