AIBSNLPWA TAMILNADU CIRCLE

CHQ NEWS 24-11-2014

A GOOD NEWS FROM USA

Judge Rejects Illinois Pension Reform Law

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A judge on Friday ruled that an Illinois law aimed at easing the state's huge unfunded pension liability is unconstitutional, handing a victory to labor unions and state retirees who challenged the law.

Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Belz, who heard oral arguments for and against the state's pension reform law on Thursday, ruled that the law both diminishes and impairs retirement benefits for public sector workers in violation of a state constitution provision. The judge rejected the state's argument that its ability to invoke its sovereign powers in an emergency trumps protections in the state constitution for pensions.

                                                     [REUTERS 21-11-14]

GOOD SAMARITAN AMONGST US.

One who donates his entire pension as relief....

Com. Sivanandan
Com. N Sivanandan is our member in Ernakulam district. He donates his entire monthly pension of Rs 21000 as relief to the Endosulfan victims of Kasargod district in north Kerala.
Endosulfan Disaster
During 1976-2000, the Plantation Corporation of Kerala flew some 65 sorties and aerially sprayed endosulfan,

a persistent organic pollutant over an area of about 12000 acres in nine villages in Kasargod district.

This was to eradicate tea mosquitoes in the cashew plantations. 

The people living inside the plantations and downwind and downstream of the experiment were exposed

to this hazardous chemical for 25 years. 

Studies conducted after the ban of the pesticide show significantly higher concentration of endosulfan productsin environmental media like water, soil and lake sediments and human blood, even in a village 25 km awayfrom the sprayed area.

The government of Kerala banned Endosulfan in Kerala in 2001. 

The Central government has banned its aerial spray.  But the victims are still suffering.   

 

Many died. Some are still struggling. Please see photos of some victims.....

 

 

[Click here to view the file....]

24-11-2014

Take our money, not FDI:

Railway  unions to government

The two major railway unions have proposed to the government an unprecedented alternative to privatisation or inviting foreign investment, to help raise funds and improve revenue.

The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) and the All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) had both been demanding an end to the government's opening of the carrier. Now, they have both offered the Rs 10,000-crore provident fund (PF) deposits of rail workers for development of the cash-short carrier, also the country's largest single employer.

"We have proposed using the PF balances of the 13.1 lakh workers and 12 lakh retired personnel," M Raghavaiah, general secretary of NFIR, told Business Standard. "We can convince the workers on depositing this money with the railways on an interest basis, rather than keeping it in bank accounts."

Raghavaiah has said in a letter to railways minister Suresh Prabhu, "Serving and retired railway employees can contribute a loan for investment toward development with an interest rate at 10.5 per cent, which would still be one per cent less than the money borrowed from the market."