All India President AIGETOA Shri Ravi Shil Verma, All India Vice President Shri Badri Kumar Mehta and AGS Shri Sunil Gautam met PGM Pers on 31.01.2022 and discussed the following issues:

Promotions from SDE/AO grade to AGM/CAO grade:

The team enquired about the managements next course of action in view of the Honble Supreme Court Judgement on reservation in promotions. It was informed by PGM Pers that his team is studying the judgement and the associated implications. We deliberated on the finer points of the judgement, complexities and the possible solutions. He said let the team study the judgement, then only they will be able to comment on the future course of action. We said all these things may go parallel and there is an imminent need to start the preparatory exercise as all the SDEs who have completed the required residency period are coming into the zone of consideration. PGM Pers assured to revert in next few days on this. PGM Pers also told that letter with regard to uploading of offline APARs gradings of all SDEs on ERP Portal has already been issued and circles must have been working on uploading of these gradings on the portal. We assured PGM Pers that our team shall be coordinating with various circles to get this exercise completed at the earliest.

He also informed that the work on RRs is also in advance stage and Pers Section shall be sharing their draft of few RRs in 2-3 days for comments from association . Thereafter, the deliberations on RRs will start. We sincerely hope that at the end of this exercise, the new RR is finalized in line with the career requirements of various executives and in an amicable and cohesive environment. Association will take all efforts to protect the interests of all executives from all grades and all streams.

Finalisation of Seniority List 10,11,12 and 13 :

AIGETOA Team informed PGM Pers that representations from all the circles have been forwarded to BSNL CO and now the lists should be finalised without any further delay. It was highlighted that there are certain issues with respect to correction in vacancy year of some executives and thereafter the lists can be finalised. We requested for an expeditious action on the same. PGM PERS assured to revert back in next few days.

Retention of newly promoted SDEs at their current circles :

PGM Pers told that they are examining the issue and after discussion with Director HR, necessary action shall be taken. It is expected that action on the same shall be taken in next 1-2 days.

Consideration of Left out cases and filling up of ST quota vacancies in the recently held JTO to SDE Promotions:

We enquired about the status on the DPC of the left out JTOs and filling up of the unfilled ST QUOTA posts. PGM Pers told that action for issuance of promotions for the unfilled vacancies in ST quota and the left out (unassessed, missing APAR etc) cases is under advance stage and hopefully promotion orders shall be issued soon. AIGETOA team requested for consideration of all the left out cases in OC and SC category also so that executives within the same batch should not be left out. We also requested for processing the pending LDCE notifications immediately as the same is pending for long now. An early action on the same is anticipated.

OTP Transfer Cases :

Team AIGETOA also highlighted to PGM Pers that some genuine Medical cases have been left out and they need to be considered urgently. We also highlighted certain discrepancies in processing of the OTP cases, specially many cases pertaining to Karnataka Circle have been left out. PGM Pers assured to discuss all those cases one by one and assured that genuine cases which has been left out shall definitely be considered. He however said that it may take sometime as his team is preoccupied in other DPC related works. The problem in OTP application arising out due to applying in test window was also highlighted.

Thereafter All India President and Vice President had a brief interaction with SDEs of BSNL CO belonging to List 8 and List 12. All India President explained the whole scenario to them and informed them about the possible roadblocks. All India President also explained the finer points of judgment as understood by him and his team and the associated complexities as well as the dependencies.

He also assured that AIGETOA team is on job and will not let management delay the AGM grade promotions both in Telecom as well as Finance Stream any more on account of untoward pretexts. He said association is taking all efforts to ensure the Promotion at the earliest. He further requested them to coordinate with circles and ensure that APAR grading of all the SDEs are uploaded on the ERP Portal. He further informed that this issue is there as an item for discussion in the next agenda meeting to be held with Recognised Association AIGETOA and there things shall be more clear and minutised in black and white. He requested all present to exercise faith and patience and to concentrate on completion of the preparatory works.

Together We will Achieve Everything.

Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has pronounced the Judgment order dated 28.01.2022 in Jarnail Singh vs Lachchmi Narain Gupta in the issue relating to reservation in promotion for SCs & STs.

Click here for Judgment copy

The Supreme Court on Friday delivered the judgment on the issue relating to reservation in promotions. The Centre and States had urged the Hon’ble Supreme Court to settle the confusion regarding the norms for reservation in promotions saying that several promotions/appointments have been stalled due to ambiguities. A Bench of Hon’ble Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and B.R.Gavaihad reserved judgment on October 26, after hearing the matter. As per report, the bench made following pronouncements today:

1. Court cannot lay down any yardstick to determine inadequacy of representation.
2. State is obligated to collect quantifiable data regarding adequacy of representation.
3. Cadre should be unit for collection for quantifiable data for reservation. The collection cannot be with respect to the entire class/class/group, but it should be relatable to Grade/Category of post to which promotion is sought. Cadre should be the unit for collecting quantifiable data. It would be meaningless if collection of data is w.r.t. the entire service.
4. The Nagaraj Judgment of 2006 would have a prospective effect.
5. The conclusion in BK Pavitra (II) approving the collection of data on the basis of groups and not cadres is contrary to the dictum in Jarnail Singh.

With the recognition of ‘cadre’ as the unit for collection of quantifiable data, the court set aside its earlier judgment in the B.K. Pavithra case. 

“As far as B.K. Pavithra case is concerned, we have held that the conclusion of this court approving the collection of data on the basis of groups and not cadres is contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Nagaraj and Jarnail Singh judgments,” Justice Raopronounced. The court further left it to the State to assess the inadequacy of the representation of SCs and STs for promotional posts by taking into account the relevant factors. 

A review had to be conducted regarding the data for the purpose of determining the inadequacy of representation in promotions, the court ordered. The court left it to the Union government to fix a “reasonable” time for the States to conduct the review.

AIGETOA writes to the CMD BSNL for immediate discontinuation of Look After arrangements and issuance of only Regular Promotion in all Grades/Streams. The letter highlights that if reservation applicability is a matter sub judiceas per management, which is stopping the regular promotions in these grades, then Look After Arrangements in AGM/DGM grades should also be stopped immediately as Reservation in Promotion Guidelines are similarly applicable on look after arrangements also. Otherwise, Regular Promotion in AGM/DGM grades should also be issued using the same methodology as being done in case of Look After arrangements.

The matter of AGM(Telecom) Promotion is lingering since long time due to reservation issue as stated by the management and there is no definite time frame for its solution. So, the only gradeas a onetime measure by using combined strength of AGM/DGM in Telecom and meeting shortfall through creation of few more posts and by introduction of stagnation criteria of 8 years in SDE/AO equivalent grades. This will overcome the legal hurdle of reservation in promotion and it will meet the requirement of the department as well as it will motivate these executives to further give their best, which will ultimately result in overall improvement in productivity of the organisation. Merger discussion of BBNL in BSNL is also in advance stage and so the promotion in AGM(T) grade will become very useful for smooth takeover of the vast network of BBNL as well as its monitoring and maintenance. Further this merger of BBNL will require creation of additional number of posts also to take over the operational requirements. So this Promotion in AGM(Telecom) grade will be a win-win situation for both the employees as well as management.

Accordingly, the association demanded immediate discontinuance of Look After arrangements and issuance of only regular promotions across all Grades/Streams. The Association also demanded immediate initiation of activities for promotion of all Eligible SDEs to AGM (T) and AOs to CAO grades to overcome the legal hurdle of reservation and give adequate career progression to BSNL Executives.

Click here for letter

AIGETOA Demanded immediate conduction of supplementary DPC and issuance of Promotion Order with the same date notionally of the left out candidates in various categories as per available Roster Positions in JTO to SDET grade for the recently issued SDET Promotion Orders dated 30.12.2021. This matter was raised immediately after issuance of the promotion order on 30th Dec, 2021 with authorities after getting inputs from field units. It is important to note that JTO to SDE(T) promotion for 945 JTOs under 67% DPC Quota was issued on 30.12.2021 for the vacancies upto January-2020 but it was found that some cases have been left over as per roster position and the same was taken up with the management. It was apprised to us that these cases will be look into and addressed after completing formalities of pending documentation. More than three weeks have been passed since then and all the documents have now also been made available. Hence we have taken up the issue to complete the process and issue the order without further delay.

Click here for the letter

AIGETOA has demanded immediate conduction of LDCE against 33% Quota for the promotion in JTO to SDE(T) grade against all pending vacancies upto current date to allow all aspirant JTOs to appear in the exam for SDE (T) promotion.

The association has also taken up the issue for conduction of LICE for the promotion from JE to JTO(T) which is pending since Vacancy Year 2018-19 and creating serious demotivation in the JE Grade.

AIGETOA also writes to the Director HR for central collection of relevant data of all Rule-8 Transfer Cases of JTOs/JAOs along with the sanction strength, Excess and Shortfall in the Circle through Online Portal. After collection of the data, a central instruction should be issued for clearance of all Rule 8 Cases and the shortfall if any in the any Circle can be met out by calling of volunteers for that Circle.

Click here for the Letter on LDCE

Click here for the Letter on LICE

Click here for the Letter on Rule-8

Flash News: As requested by AIGETOA, BSNLCO is seeking the status of Rule 8 cases from all the circles. The letter for Rule 8 cases wrt JEs has been issued today. The letter with regard to status of Rule 8 cases pertaining to JTOs is also being issued in a day or two.

With this initiative pendency in the rule 8 waiting List is definitely going to be reduced.

GS AIGETOA writes to CMD BSNL regarding non-payment of ex-gratia and other terminal benefits at the pretext of vigilance clearance owing to pending personal cases (Other than departmental) in the court of competent jurisdiction.

Click here for letter

Dear all

Total 55 cases payment of GTI for Executives and 10 Non executives have been approved by LIC and fund has been transferred to BSNL account. Bsnl HQ has credited the same into nominee account through concerned circle finance team.

Apart from it 19 cases of executives and 26 cases of non executives are pending at LIC end. LIC will provide the fund corresponding to them in coming days.

Team AIGETOA

It’s time to Change the Thought Process and shed the EGO

As SNEA preferred to part way from the Forum of Executives Association and went ahead ignoring the decisions taken and signed with MoU with AIGETOA. Still, we never uttered anything negative against them in view of the larger cause associated with united struggle. Despite themselves negating the coalition ethics as usual, we were respectful towards their call , but recent updates on their website clearly proves the fact that the political interests stand much ahead of executive fraternity’s need and interests.

Let us have a close check on the difference of stand and the present status.

Time bound Functional Promotions to executives:

The matter which AIGETOA has been demanding from 2007-08 onwards as a contemporary CPSU hierarchy and in fact AIGETOA only has coined this term in BSNL. We in fact were the prime contributors in 2018 also with respect to the finalisation of the CPSU CH proposal and drafted the practical and acceptable solutions, however at the end, these practical suggestions were watered down by some vested interests to keep their ill motives of keeping BSNL Recruits away from promotions. We warned in advance about the inherent lacunae of the proposal and if not cleared , the policy implementation was bound to get stalled after the very first date of implementation. The same has been proved true as neither DoT nor management could move ahead with the implementation of the policy till date. AIGETOA always advocated for refinement of these proposals by making it compliant to DoP&T norms related to Reservation issue, inclusion of E2 as starting pay scale, removal of 12 years clause as residency period, inclusion of internal fast track mechanism etc in the proposal which was totally ignored and negated by the majority association at that time. We always maintained a stand that if these issues are not included, the implementation of the proposal can never occur and maintained the same stand in charter of demands also.

In the recent minutes issued to Joint forum, the non-viability of the implementation of BEPPRR-2018 is clearly and non-ambiguously mentioned by management. AIGETOA stand has been very clear while drafting the charter of demands that Reservation Guidelines, pay scales and internal fast track mechanism, need to be taken care of and provision for following Govt/ DoP&T guidelines on Reservation, protecting the Constitutional rights needs to be incorporated in the policy. It may also be noted that approved draft proposal of BEPPAAR -2018 have the mention that reservation cannot be extended, a point which was never highlighted by SNEA earlier.

Since the management has categorically stated that they can’t implement CPSUCH in its earlier approved form, alternate method proposed by AIGETOA for ensuring the Time bound Promotion was to go ahead with incorporation of the Maximum Stagnation criteria in all the RRs which will take care of the reservation guidelines as well as making the promotion time bound. This will cover all eligible executives promotion by filling up the available vacancies and the remaining persons once the vacancies are filled up being covered through maximum stagnation criteria. It also maintains the sanctity of reservation rules as executives are personally upgraded to the higher position by carrying their existing post in the higher grade.

Management accepted to explore this option of introducing the maximum stagnation criteria in AGM/CAO/Equivalent grade and also agreed to explore the option of reducing the stagnation criteria in SDE/equivalent grade as a part of the RR modification exercise. This exploration of the alternate method was also part of the agreed MoU between AIGETOA and SNEA but SNEA preferred to backtrack on the same. Our Sister Association is not at all ready to accept the alternate method which is more practical and feasible to implement and want to keep running behind the earlier approved proposal which has not moved even an inch forward.

The previous regime has already wasted 3 and half years in running after this CPSU CH mirage and putting everything to a halt and the only sufferer group were the BSNL Recruits and relatively young competitive quota people from the group absorbed from DoT. AIGETOA after assuming the charge has started with practical and acceptable methods and the result is slowly and steadily visible to all. We requested management to explore the options of executing the promotions in a time bound manner in the ambit of existing framework and we have succeeded in convincing the management for the same. We wanted to keep everyone on united platform while this change and future was re-written, however that unity was perhaps not acceptable to out sister association SNEA.

AIGETOA stand is very clear “ A Bird in hand in better than two on the bush “. Hence AIGETOA is always open to explore practical alternative methods and the results is very much in front of all executives: More than 4500 JTO executives got promoted to SDEs in Telecom ,civil, electrical and Architecture grades in just 6 months (reducing the JTO(T) stagnation from 21 years to 8 years barring few executives). This was being stopped in the name of CPSU CH for more than three years and was still tried to be derailed by them. Having accomplished one major milestone, now we have moved on to the next batches and very soon we will accomplish that. We want to remain practical and don’t want to build castle in the air like what our previous regime was doing.

Now we are moving towards executing the promotions in other grades of SDE/AO/DE/AGM/CAO/DGM equivalent and very soon we will achieve that also. We further reassure that nobody will be left behind and we will make all efforts to achieve the promotions for all the eligible ones.