Sunday, February 27, 2011

Film on AMBEDKAR AT NAGARKOIL- AIIEA plays significant role- Com K SWAMINATHAN, PARTICIPATED THE RALLY AND FUNCTION HAILING ITS RELEASE ON FIRST DAY

பிப்.25-ல் நாகர்கோவிலில் அம்பேத்கர் திரைப்படம் திரையிடல்

First Published : 22 Feb 2011 12:14:34 PM IST


நாகர்கோவில், பிப்.21: நாகர்கோவில் ஒழுகினசேரியிலுள்ள ஏ.வி.எம். திரையரங்கில் அம்பேத்கர் திரைப்படம் பிப். 25-ம் தேதி முதல் 28-ம் தேதி வரை திரையிடப்படுகிறது.

இது தொடர்பாக தமிழ்நாடு முற்போக்கு எழுத்தாளர் கலைஞர்கள் சங்க மாவட்டச் செயலரும், அம்பேத்கர் திரைப்பட திரையிடல் கூட்டமைப்பு அமைப்பாளருமான க. கணேசன் வெளியிட்ட அறிக்கை:

அகில இந்திய இன்சூரன்ஸ் ஊழியர் சங்கம், பிஎஸ்என்எல் ஊழியர் சங்கம், தமிழ்நாடு அரசு ஊழியர் சங்கம், தமிழ்நாடு அரசுப் போக்குவரத்து ஊழியர் சங்கம், குமரி மாவட்ட சிஐடியூ, தமிழ்நாடு முற்போக்கு எழுத்தாளர், கலைஞர்கள் சங்கம், அம்பேத்கர் பாசறை, அம்பேத்கர் டிரஸ்ட், விடுதலைச் சிறுத்தைகள் கட்சி, ஐ.எஸ்.ஆர். ஓ. ஊழியர் சங்கம், ஐ.ஆர்.இ. எஸ்.சி., எஸ்.டி. ஊழியர்கள் சங்கம், அகில இந்திய எஸ்.சி., எஸ்.டி. ரயில்வே ஊழியர்கள் சங்கம், மார்த்தாண்டம் நவஜோதி டிரஸ்ட், வில்லுக்குறி தாழ்த்தப்பட்டோர் பிற்படுத்தப்பட்டோர், மிகவும் பிற்படுத்தப்பட்டோர் நலச்சங்கம், சால்வேஷன் ஆர்மி நலச்சங்கம் உள்ளிட்ட அமைப்புகள் இத் திரைப்படத்தை காட்சிகள் வாரியாக காண ஏற்பாடுகள் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளன.

இத் திரைப்படம் திரையிடுவதை பிப். 25-ம் தேதி அமைச்சர் என். சுரேஷ்ராஜன் தொடங்கி வைக்கிறார்.

AIIEA's assistance to the School


a.one_58910_ss.jpg a.one_58914_ss.jpg a.one_58903_ss.jpg a.one_58902_ss.jpg

As decided in our SZIEF conference at Kozhikode to extend further assistance to the school building constructed by us earlier as part of our Tsunami Rehabilitation project,furnitures were distributed to the poor Students of Azheekkal Government High School in Karunagapally.50 sets of benches and desks,10 sets Of class table and chair and 4 numbers of laboratory table amounting to Rs.300000 were distributed in a function held in the school Hall on 23rd February,2011.The function was arranged by the comrades Of Karunagapally branch in Thiruvananthapuram division.Com. N.Ganapathykrishnan,Vice President,SZIEF and convener of the Committee welcomed the gathering.Com.Baby joseph,Joint secretary,SZIEF and the joint convener of the committee presided the function.Com C. Radhamony,District Panchayath member inaugurated the function by giving a small model of bench to the Headmasterof the school.Com L.Pazhaniyappan,Joint secretary,SZIEF presented a shawl to Sri.H.A.Kalam of Chalayam Wood Industries who made the furniture.Comrades P.Raju,General secretary,Thiruvananthapuram Division,T. Balakrishnan,SZIEF working committee member and joint secretary of Kottayam Division and V.Gopalakrishna Pillai Secretary,LIC Pensioners Association,TVM Division made felicitations.Parent Teachers Association President Smt.Soja and member Sri. Srikumar,Rural PanchayathMember Sri.Harshan,Local ward member Sri.Sagar,Vyasavilasam Karayogam(local community)

President Sri.Ravi and Block Panchayath Member Smt. Sobha also offered felicitations.These local dignitaries’ praised the union for doing such a commendable work for the school.Smt.Sivadayani Teacher in charge of the school proposed vote of thanks.The entire school Hall was full with the Students who has assembled in such large numbers for the function.The Divisional office bearers Of Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam Division along with comrades from nearby branches also attended the meeting.The meeting was a grand success on all counts.

Congrats for LICEU Tiruvananthapuram for having implemented the decision in a well planned manner.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

5 LAC STRONG RALLY IN NEW DELHI- PRAGOTI

Media's (Lack of) Coverage of Workers' Rally in Delhi

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I received this message as an email from a friend. I cannot but agree with him entirely. (Image courtesy Reuters)

Media Coverage of Workers' Rally in Delhi: Interesting Case
There was a huge workers' rally organised by 9 central trade unions in Delhi today, protesting against price rise, violation of labour laws, unemployment, social insecurity etc. Lakhs of workers from across the country participated in the rally making it one of the biggest witnessed in Delhi in recent times. However, none of the major TV channels have shown even a glimpse of the rally so far. Interestingly, the major foreign news agencies like Reuters and AFP as well as the BBC have already covered the rally, noted its political significance and highlighted the issues being raised by the workers (see below). Why are the Indian media persons so insensitive to the voice of lakhs of workers from their own country?
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Thousands in India protest high food prices

By Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of trade unionists, including those from a group linked to India's ruling party, marched through the streets of the capital on Wednesday to protest food prices, piling pressure on a government already under fire over graft.

The demonstration in New Delhi was the latest in a wave of protests sweeping across the world, including the Middle East and Africa, ignited by a worldwide spike in food prices.

India, Asia's third-largest economy and home to more than a billion people, has been grappling with double-digit food inflation. Hundreds of millions of poor have been hit the hardest.

In one of the largest anti-government protests in New Delhi in recent years, at least 50,000 people representing trade unions from the country's political parties, marched through the centre of the capital towards the parliament building.

In a sea of red flags and hats bearing their union name, protesters chanted slogans and carried banners calling on the government to provide food security.

"Prices will now kill the common man," read one banner.

"We get paid 100-125 Rupees (1.36 to 1.70 pounds) a day. How are we going to survive on this if prices are so high?" said Kailash Sain, who had travelled to the capital from the western state of Rajasthan.

"We have come here so that our voices reverberate inside the house (parliament) and they can see what pain the common man is going through," said another demonstrator, Akhil Samamtray from western Orissa state.

Protesters arrived by bus and train from all over the country and the numbers were expected to rise.

PJ Raju, secretary of the Congress' trade union, told Reuters around 100,000 people from his party alone would be joining the protest.

The presence of trade union members from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling Congress party -- a rare instance of a protest against their own government -- is a telling sign of the concerns within the party about government policies that have been unable to tame inflation.

The government has looked increasingly helpless as it tries to introduce policies to rein in food prices, which analysts say have come far too late.

India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has raised interest rates seven times in a year to try and tame rising prices but has warned fiscal policies would be largely ineffective against rising food prices which stem largely from bad weather and problems on the supply side.

The protests also come only a day after Singh relented to months of opposition demands for a parliamentary probe into a multi-billion dollar scandal over sales of telecoms licences for kickbacks.

The scandals have piled enormous pressure on the reformist 78-uear-old prime minister, seen as a lame duck who plays second fiddle to Congress party head Sonia Gandhi. Some believe further revelations could force him from power early and lead to an interim leader before a 2014 general election.

(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Additional reporting by C.J. Kuncheria: Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Sanjeev Miglani)

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BBC News

23 February 2011 Last updated at 07:00 GMT

Thousands of people have gathered in the Indian capital, Delhi, to take part in a rally to protest against rising food prices and unemployment.

A steady stream of protesters, carrying red flags, has been marching through the streets of central Delhi since early morning.

The rally has led to massive traffic jams in the city.

Trade unions who have called the rally say nearly 40,000 people will attend a meeting at the Ramlila grounds.

Thousands will then march to parliament, they say.

Security is tight across the city with thousands of policemen deployed at the rally ground and along the route of the march.

The protest has been organised by major trade unions, including the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre for Industrial Trade Union (CITU).

The Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) - which is backed by the governing Congress party - is also supporting the strike saying it wants to remind the government about its commitments to the poor.

Food inflation has been consistently rising in India, pushing up household budgets.

The cost of pulses, milk, wheat, rice and vegetables has gone up sharply. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said food prices are an "area of concern".

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Mass rally against inflation in Indian capital

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of people gathered in the Indian capital on Wednesday to protest against inflation, complaining that rising prices were increasing hardship for the country's many poor.

The mostly working-class demonstrators, many carrying Communist flags and shouting slogans against inflation and corruption, converged on the centre of New Delhi for the rally, with surrounding roads closed to traffic.

The rally was organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), which joined forces with other unions to pressure the government over inflation before the unveiling of a new annual budget on Monday.

"Workers from 19 states, thousands of women among them, are reaching Delhi and will march to parliament to seek their rightful share in the country's so-called 'robust growth story'," said a CITU statement.

The CITU said it expected 800,000 to one million people, though this figure could not be independently verified. Police were unable to estimate the number of demonstrators.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described inflation as a "serious" threat to India's growth, and the government has been racing to boost vegetable and other supplies to bring down soaring food prices.

The most recent data show annual food inflation at 11.05 percent, down from its highs of nearly 20 percent, while headline inflation as measured by the wholesale price index is at 8.23 percent.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP that nearly 2,000 policemen had been deployed in central Delhi to keep order during the demonstration.

"We have instructed the police to ensure that the crowd does not vandalise government buildings or monuments in central Delhi," he said.

One protester, Jagdeesh Thakur, president of a secondary school teachers' association in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said the left-leaning government was "on the wrong path".

"We need to control inflation. Stop unemployment and stop privatisations," he told AFP. "The government is on the wrong path. It has forgotten the poor. It is only interested in helping the rich."

Rishi Pal, a 52-year-old member of a farmers' union from the northwestern state of Punjab, said: "We need the government to control prices. Poor people can't feed their families.

As well as surging inflation, a host of corruption scandals ranging from the Delhi Commonwealth Games last October to the sale of telecom licences has sapped the energy of Singh's administration and led to months of bad publicity.

On Tuesday, Singh agreed to set up a cross-party investigation into the licence sales in 2008 that has led to a police investigation and the arrest of his former telecom minister, A. Raja.

Opposition parties wrecked the last session of parliament in 2010 by holding protests every day demanding an inquiry into the cut-price sales, which could have cost the country up to $40 billion in lost revenue.

The government, a coalition led by Singh's Congress party, is expected to pass its budget for the next fiscal year on Monday next week.(end)

5 LAC WORKERS CONVERGE IN NEW DELHI TODAY IN DEFENCE OF THEIR RIGHTS- 23 02 2011







Tuesday, February 22, 2011

THE HINDU- 09 02 2011

Withdraw LIC amendment Bill,

urge employees' union

Special Correspondent

It is opposing the bill in national interest

MADURAI: The Union Government should withdraw the LIC of India amendment Bill, which is likely to be tabled in Parliament, said Insurance Corporation Employees' Union (ICEU) southern region secretary K. Swaminathan here on Monday.

Speaking to reporters, he said that campaigns and sensitisation programmes among general public and employee-members were being carried out region-wise to protect public sector undertakings. The demerits of foreign direct investment in the insurance sector were also being discussed.

The Standing Committee (Finance) in Parliament, which comprises members from different political parties, had been apprised of the consequences of enhancement of the percentage of FDI through signature and post-card campaigns. “We are strongly opposing it in the national interest,” Mr. Swaminathan reiterated.

In the current fiscal, as on January 2011, 2.50 crore LIC policies had been taken/issued to public at the all India level and it was expected to surpass last year's (2009-10) issuance of 3.50 crore policies. The claim settlement in the LIC of India was 99.86 per cent, which was widely appreciated in the industry.

Role of technology

He clarified that the employees and trade unions recognised the role of technology in a competitive environment being introduced in the insurance sector. The LIC of India focussed more on upgrading its technology, he responded.

Despite recession and presence of technology, there had been no VRS or redundancy, he said. The LIC of India was playing a major role in mobilising domestic savings and its role in infrastructure building was commendable. Under such circumstances, the proposal to enhance foreign investment should be discouraged and that the amendment Bill should be dropped.

Mr. Swaminathan recalled the grim situation experienced in the Western countries a couple of years ago and hoped the government would withdraw the Bill in the larger national interest immediately.

In southern region, which comprises Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, there are 250 centres. The association office-bearers had been addressing the members and general public on the nuances of public undertakings such as LIC of India, he said and added that they would join the Indian trade unions in the “march to Parliament” on February 23 in New Delhi.

Later, he addressed the association members at the union premises in the city.

Monday, February 21, 2011

TNUEF - DT SECYS MEET- STATE COMMITTEE



தீண்டாமை ஒழிப்பு முன்னணி மாநிலக் குழு கூட்டம் -
மாவட்டச் செயலாளர் கூட்டம்.
தஞ்சாவூர்- 12 & 13 மார்ச் - 2011
சரோஜ் இல்லம் ( AIIEA )