Organ of Federation of Medical And Sales Representatives’ Associations of India60-A Charu Avenue • Kolkata-700 033 • Phone : (033)24242862 • Fax : (033)24244943 • www.fmrai.org • E-mail : fmrainews@gmail.com

FMRAI NEWSRs.3

Vol. XIII No. 1 KOLKATA 1 AUGUST 2013

See page-2

The working committee meeting ofFMRAI, held at Nagpur on 19-20 July,decided to observe countrywide Protest Dayon 23 August against increasingmultinational penetration in Indian market;for price control on all medicines and forremoval of all taxes from the medicines inthe National List of Essential Medicines(NLEM).

It is now clear that drug MNCs are comingto grab Indian pharma market replacingIndian sector by acquisition or forcing out.The MNCs are imposing conditionalities onthe Government who is in deseparation forFDI to meet current account deficit.

The MNCs penetration withGovernmental policy support and actions arealso completely destabilizing Indian pharmamarket preparing ground for establishingmonopolized patented medicines of MNCs.In the process the medical representatives'job security and their unrestricted right to workare also facing serious threats.

The government has prepared NLEM asper Supreme Court's direction, but let theprice fixation decided by the market incomplete departure from earlier DPCO. ForNLEM, the NPPA has been deciding aboutthe price on market study and then issuingcircular with lot of arbitrary decisions.Simultaneously, the government has cut thecommissions for the wholesalers andretailers in the name of providing relief to thepeople. However, one is condemnable is thefact that government kept high taxation evenon essential medicines to meet government'sown fiscal deficits. Medicine has become one

Fight MNC PenetrationRemove Tax on NLEM

In the tripartite preparatory meeting,called by the Union Labour Ministry on 28June, despite it was decided that within amonth's time the Industrial TripartiteCommittee for the Sales PromotionEmployees will be constituted; the Centralgovernment has not constituted the sameso far. FMRAI, in the meantime receivedthe minutes of the said meeting.

During the meeting FMRAI submitted9 point demands which include effectiveenforcement of SPE Act and the Rulesunder it and amendment of the Section 9of the SPE Act to incorporate imprisonmentas penalty and higher penalty forsubsequent offences with its monitoringmechanism and suspension of salespromotion till compliance of law; the threatof job security of sales promotionemployees due to arbitrary orders of bothCentral and State Government Health /Administrative authorities; notification ofsales promotion employees and fixation

On LabourRelated

Demandsof SPEs

of the highest taxed commodities. It is onecommodity on which central governmentcollects excise duty not on cost ofproduction but on retail sale price.Therefore, 8% excise duty across theboard has become meaningless in thelight of excise duty collection on MRP.

In addition, VAT is collected on NLEMitems. Therefore FMRAI's workingcommittee not only demanded revertingback to DPCO 1979 for price control on

all medicines, but also demandedremoval of all taxes on NLEM. It is in thisbackground, working committee decidedto undertake massive public campaign,independently and along with others, toobserve all India Protest Week during 16-22 August and observe Protest Day on23 August; pursue with concern ministryof the Central government the otherdemands; and followed by nationalconvention in November - December.

Working Committee Meeting at Nagpur

Comrade SamarMukherjee's 100 years longjourney came to an end whenhe breathed his last on 18 July2013.

Completely dedicated toworking class cause and firmlycommitted to revolutionaryideology, Comrade SamarMukherjee lived a spartan liferemaining bachelor, living in Partycommune. He joined the national freedommovement when he was a student. Hejoined the communist party in 1940. Hespent underground and jail life before andafter India's independence.

By sheer dedication and hard workComrade Samar Mukherjee reached to thehighest positions - Polit Bureau Member ofCPI(M), leader of CPI(M)'s Parliamentarygroup in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, andthe General Secretary of CITU. He was oneof the founders of CITU. He played aleading role in the historic railway workers'strike in 1974 as a leader of NationalCoordination Committee of Railwaymen's

Comrade Samar Mukherjee

In the midst of ongoing movement in pursuanceof their trade union and collective bargaining rights;the seething anger of Alembic field workersexploded when they heard that the managementillegally transfered their all India convener to a distantplace and 85% of company's field workers resortedto a day's lightning strike on 26 July completelyparalyzing company's sales promotion activities allover the country. Striking workers and organised fieldforce jointly staged demonstrations at medicinemarkets and met local stockists and through them

Complete Paralyzationof Field Work

Lightning Strike in Alembic

submitted memoranda to thecompany and held gate meetingsin front of company'sestablishments at state capitals.

Preliminary reports say that1740 out of total around 2000 fieldworkers working in 14 divisions ofthe company resorted to flashstrike within a short notice of fivedays. Thousands of organised fieldworkers held gate meetings beforecompany's offices / C&Fs at Patna,Ranchi, Cuttack, Guwahati,Kolkata, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore,Raipur, Nagpur, Pune, Chennai,Hyderabad, Vijayawada,Trivandrum, Ernakulam andBangalore and at least in 165 citiesand towns, FMRAI's local units withAlembic field workers met thestockists and submittedmemoranda.

In the meantime, on the dispute

Gate meeting at Kolkata

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Homage

Struggle (NCCRS). He led manystruggles for the haplessuprooted people due to partitionon attaining country'sindependence. Comrade SamarMukherjee was also easilyapproachable to even ordinaryworkers and the suffering peopleand had personal contact indifferent parts of the country.

Comrade Samar Mukherjee hadpersonal long association with FMRAI andguided it since the day he addressedFMRAI's first rally in front of the Parliamentat Boat Club in 1973. He flagged off 'FMRAIExpress' for the Mumbai rally in 1997.

FMRAI pays respectful homage toComrade Samar Mukherjee and takespledge to carry forward his ideals andactions for the cause of the working classand other toiling and suffering sections andvision of democratic India.

FMRAI dips its flag in respectfulmemory of Comrade Samar Mukherjee.

Long live Comrade SamarMukherjee!

FMRAI NEWSAUGUST 2013

2

FMRAI NEWS AUGUST 2013

National working committee meeting of FMRAI, held at Nagpur on 19-20July, decided to observe countrywide Protest Day on 23 August againstincreasing market monopolization by the multinational drug cartel to imposepatent regime through back door; against Central government's appeasementpolicy towards these MNCs subjugating country's sovereignty and self-reliancein pharma sector; against high rise of medicine prices and against resultingthreat to job security and unrestricted right to work of the sales promotionemployees.

Ongoing world economic crisis beginning in late 2007 resulting marketcontraction in Europe, America and other industrially developed countriescombined with government's austerity measures particularly in healthcaresector and an estimated $230-billion patented drugs (which they call 'brands')going out of patents in US by 2015; pharma drug MNCs became desperatein search of newer markets, specially in India, and are, therefore, eyeing theIndian pharma market to sell their off patented drugs (which they call 'generics')and trying to block Indian drug companies who exports medicines to West.And Manmohan Singh led UPA II, acting at the behest of these MNCs, istrying to bail out them by opening almost all sectors inviting FDI. Since April2000, US $10.3 billion FDI has come into the pharmaceuticals sector alone,nearly 5 per cent of the total foreign inflows the country has received throughacquisition route, which neither contributed in increasing production nor createdadditional employment (in case of Adcock Ingram, retrenched workers). Despitethese, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma and finance minister P.Chidambaram travelled to the US in the past weeks to pitch for investments.Discussion is on and the Government is also expected to further liberalize theFDI regime in sectors such as telecom and defence.

The series of developments unfolded since 23rd conference of FMRAI,held in February this year, will further vindicate the aggressiveness of theseMNCs. In a retaliatory measure, following Supreme Court's refusal of grantingpatent on Gleevec, Ranbaxy was penalized by USFDA of $500 million on theplea of supplying 'adulterated' drugs. The whole objective is to put tradebarrier so as to disallow Indian companies to export medicines in languishingmarket of USA. Corporate media had launched all out campaign demandingaction against Ranbaxy in particular and the drugs manufactured in India ingeneral calling them as 'substandard'. PIL on this was rightly dismissed bySupreme Court. The powerful US drug lobby, set up FDA offices in Delhi,Mumbai and in some other states and wants to apply US law in India, posingthreat to country's sovereignty.

Multinational's desperation is further evident from the fiasco in respect ofanti-diabetic drug, Pioglitazone. On the basis of complaint of an agent ofmultinationals, government regulatory authorities banned the drug, withoutseeking any opinion of the experts, and later on, had to withdraw the ban inthe face of all-round protest. Earlier, in 2011, in a similar fashion, under thepressure of powerful US drug lobby, Placentrex was banned and later onhad to withdraw the ban.

For creating a favourable condition for the multinationals, their henchmenand corporate media are working day and night. Today, US administrationand especially their drug lobby have established a deeper penetrationinfluencing a section of politicians and the bureaucrats in government'sregulatory agencies. In case of Ranbaxy fine, Reuters reported on 14 May,2013 "Dinesh Thakur, former Ranbaxy director and global head of researchinformation & portfolio management, is entitled to $48.6 million as thewhistleblower in the case, the Justice Department said. It was Thakur whouncovered the unsafe practices and violations at Ranbaxy. 'Ranbaxy'smanagement was notified of these widespread problems. When they failedto correct the problems, it left me with no choice but to alert healthcareauthorities,' Thakur said in a statement." Further, the Union ministry of healthand family welfare banned Piogiltazone based on a letter sent in January2013 to the Drug Control General of India (DCGI) by the Chennai-baseddiabetologist Dr. V. Mohan.

But, the existing Indian law and powerful movement of field workersunder FMRAI are standing in the way which has necessitated them to doaway with laws of the land and restructuring the work of sales promotionemployees. The newer attack on the sovereignty and self reliance on medicinesthat the country has achieved and on unfettered work and profession of thesales promotion employees has a linkage.

It is in this background, national Working Committee meeting at Nagpurdecided to observe Protest Day on 23 August by way of public campaign inall cities and towns all over the country followed by holding conventions alongwith doctors, chemists, science organisations etc. from districts to state and atnational level at Delhi in November- December besides persuasions at ministrylevel.

Resist the GrowingMultinationals Penetration

of category and minimum wageof the sales promotion employees;amendment of SPE Act to include8 hours work; 6 months maternityleave for women sales promotionemployees; statutory workingrules for the sales promotionemployees; and urgentenforcement of Section 2(j)ii(b) ofI D Act.

While appreciating thedevelopment that CentralGovernment's agreement information of industrial tripartitecommittee, the workingcommittee meeting howeverdecided to remain vigilant and tobe prepared to launch movementin future in pursuance of abovementioned 9 point demands fromlocal units to state and then to

from page-1 On Labour Related Demands of SPEsspread at national leveldepending upon Centralgovernment's response.

In the policy level area, boththe movements in pursuanceof medicine and labour relateddemands of the field workerswill culminate in general strikeof the field workers inNovember - December.

The working committee alsotook other decisions onmovement and organisationalareas which include observingbirth centenary of Comrade JyotiBasu all over the country; the nextGCM would be held inChandigarh in February, 2014; allIndia meeting of state FMRAINews in-charges to be held atChandigarh in September.

Working committee also tookdecisions in accomplishing theremaining task of achievingobjective of one lakhmembership in 2013 of whichstate units have already touched57,600 mark. On thedevelopments in Uttar Pradesh,the working committeeconcluded that the only unit inUttar Pradesh and Uttarakhandis UPMSRA and there is no otherunit of FMRAI. A resolution in thisregard adopted on 30 June, 2013by Central Executive Committeeof UPMSRA and has been sentto All India centre of CITU. Themeeting also decided to forwardthe working committeeconclusions in this regard toCITU Centre.

raised on the FMRAI's updatedcharter of demands, conciliationmeeting has been called on 5August at Vadodara.

The action of themanagement transferring the allIndia convener, L S Bharavi, wasin violation of Section 33(1)(a) ofIndustrial Disputes Act, 1947 andSection 61 of I.D. (Central) Rules,being a protected workman as heis the all India convener of FMRAIin Alembic and head of thenegotiating team to negotiate thecharter of demands. Further, itwas unfair labour practiceresorted to by Alembicmanagement in transferring himduring the pendency ofconciliation in violation of pointno. 7 of section 25(T) under FifthSchedule of Industrial Disputes

Lightning Strike in Alembicfrom page-1

Act, 1947 and Bharavi was rightin refusing unlawful andunreasonable order of themanagement.

Alembic field workers havebeen agitating including resortingto couple of strikes in the past. Thelightning strike on 26 Julysurpassed all previous records.Earlier, the all India Alembiccouncil meeting, held on 19 Mayadopted a resolution raising fourdemands - immediate negotiationand settlement of the updatedcharter of demands; letter ofappointment to existing and newrecruits in Form-A, Rule 22(1) ofSPE Act; constitution of grievancecommittee for the field workers asper I.D. (Amendment) Act. 2010 todiscuss the grievance of the fieldworkers including illegal

imposition of mobile reporting andrelated victimizations andnormalize field work of R. K.Srivastava at Gorakhpur and areagitating in pursuance of that. In aseparate resolution, the meetingalso protested againstmanagement's interference intrade union functioning termingMP based field worker'sparticipation in FMRAI's movementin Svizera as 'criminal offence'.

As decided in the all Indiameeting, Alembic field workersare gearing up for relay strikeprogrammes during September- November followed by marchto Mumbai in December to stageday long dharna in front ofcorporate office and toparticipate all India convention ofAlembic field workers.

140 council leaders from 33councils of MSMRA attended statecouncil subcommittee meeting atMumbai on 7 July. FMRAI's jointgeneral secretary DeepakBhattcharjee inaugurated themeeting. He dealt with the historyof council movement of FMRAIand narrated the challengesbefore the organization inreversing the restructuringpolicies of the industry. Heemphasised on council networking and the role of the statecouncil subcommittee in carryingthe decisions of all India councilsub-committee up to the sub unitlevel. State council subcommitteeconvener Saleem Patelpresented the note explaining theimportance of the functioning ofsub unit council subcommitteesand company wise councils. Thenote was discussed by theparticipants divided into 7 groupsand their opinions were placed inthe meeting.13 conveners fromsub unit council subcommitteesalso shared their experiences. Themeeting adopted the road map on

Council Sub Committee MeetingsFurther to the news published in FMRAI News, July, 2013, state council

sub-committee meetings were held in Maharashtra and Punjab - Chandigarhsubsequently.

council and its related movementsin line with FMRAI's programmesand decided to conduct sub unitlevel meetings throughout thestate on 21 July and 4 August inpresence of state council corecommittee members. FMRAI'sjoint general secretary K BKadam and MSMRA's generalsecretary Dilip Deshpandegreeted the participants.MSMRA's president S R

Nalawade presided over themeeting.

PCMSRU21 conveners and joint

conveners of different councilsattended the state council sub-committee meeting on 7 July atPCMSRU office, Jalandhar. AllIndia council sub-committeeconvener Santanu Chaterjeehelped and guided the meeting.

MSMRA

MSMRA state council subcommittee meeting

FMRAI NEWS AUGUST 2013

3

C O U N C I L N E W S

In pursuance of 14 point strikedemands which includesettlement of charter of demandspending since 2008; constitutionof grievance committee as perIndustrial Disputes (Amendment)Act, 2010; appointment letters inForm A, leave provisions andmaintenance of other registers asrequired under the provisions ofSPE Act and Rules; againstunilateral and illegal introductionof electronic reporting system ingross violation of Section 9A ofI.D. Act and declaring illegallockout as a consequent to thatreporting system and on otherdemands; around 400 fieldworkers out of total around 500working in existing two divisionsresorted to a day's strike on 15July all over the country. The otherdemands include againstarbitrary deductions from salary,expenses and non payment ofannual increment in grossviolations of rules of naturaljustice; against non payment ofbonus and non compliance ofESIC provisions etc.

Striking workers stageddharnas and council sub-committee of the respective stateunits organized gate meetings infront of company'sestablishments at Jaipur,Lucknow, Patna, Kolkata,Cuttack, Guwahati, Indore andbefore marketing office at

Successful Strikein Ind Swift

Mumbai. Leaders of FMRAI, stateunits and Ind Swift counciladdressed those meetings. Fieldworkers of Punjab, Haryana andHimachal reached Chandigarhto stage dharna before thecorporate office which waslocked seeing the mood of thestriking workers. The topexecutives of the company alongwith the field managers of northzone in the name of a meetingwere taken in a different office ofthe company but could not evadethe anger of the striking workerswho staged dharna andorganized gate meeting there.

Repeated and patientpersuasion by FMRAI yielded noresult and as a result, fieldworkers of the company had tochoose agitational path. Duringlast November - December, fieldworkers organised successfulzonal dharnas and stageddemonstration before thecompany. Later, in the grievancecommittee meeting held on 22April, the management showedtheir indifferent attitude inresolving the issues of the salespromotion employees throughmutual discussion and imposedthe strike on the field workers ofthe company.

Shortly, FMRAI will call allIndia Ind Swift council meeting totake stock of the situation and todecide the future course.

Dharna at Cuttack

After long and patient persuasion, a grievancecommittee for the field workers, irrespective of theirdesignations and divisions working in the companyall over the country in Intas Pharmaceuticals Limitedwas formed and signed a minute in this regard on 9July, at Ahmedabad where the company's head officeis situated. It was mutually agreed that the name ofthe committee would be 'Intas Field Force WelfareCommittee' consisting of four members, as of now,will meet at least twice in a year and they would be

Grievance CommitteeFormed in Intas

treated on duty while attending such meeting.Management assured to look into the issues

regarding electronic reporting (FFR), delayedconfirmation of services of field workers andappointment letters in Form A of SPE Act to theexisting and future recruits favourably. On behalf ofthe management Vivek Seth, Executive VP(marketing and sales); SP Singh, HR Executive andon behalf of the Welfare Committee Sudip Banerjeeand Shinumon JG signed the minutes.

Welfare committee (grievance committee) meetingbetween FMRAI's committee and Win Medicaremanagement was held on 15 July at the head office ofthe company at New Delhi.

It was mutually agreed that henceforth, the yearlystandard tour programme (STP) would be preparedby the field workers in mutual consultation with hisDSM/RSM and to be submitted by 15 November toDSM who will send the approved STP back to thefield worker by 15 December. Management will issuea circular in this regard. Despite all field workers ofOral Care division who were absorbed in the maindivision and were brought under the settlementcoverage, management agreed to provide benefits ofthe settlement dated 24 January, 2013 to remainingone Patna based field worker from April, 2013.

Further, management agreed to reimburse thededucted allowances, deducted in 2009, to the fieldworkers on alleged ground of low call average andshall be paid with September - October, 2013 expense

Welfare CommitteeMeeting in Win Medicare

CITU's all India general secretary and Memberof Parliament Tapan Sen wrote a letter on 15 July toSrikanta Kumar Jena, the Union minister ofchemicals and fertilizers, seeking intervention inresolving issues between the sales promotionemployees of a public sector drug unit, M/S.Karnataka Antibiotics Pharmaceutical Limited(KAPL) and its management with reference toFMRAI's letter to the company's managing director.

The management of KAPL resorted to various unfairlabour practices which include illegal deductions oftravel expenses linking with business; unilateraltransfers of leading functionaries, illegal termination,illegal closer of marketing operations in the entire north-east region and deliberate delay of confirmations of

Karnataka Antibiotics: Tapan SenWrote to the Union Minister

sales promotion employees. In addition, despiterepeated persuasion, the management did notconstitute grievance redressal forum for the salespromotion employees as per the provisions of IndustrialDispute (Amendment) Act, 2010.

All India council meeting of KAPL fieldworkersheld at Bengaluru on 23 June unanimously adopteda resolution against such unfair labour practices ofthe management. On the following day, led by FMRAIsecretary T. Kameshwar Rao, a delegationconsisting of nine all India KAPL council committeemembers reached head office to submit theresolution which the management refused to accept.Later, the memorandum was sent to the companyby post.

Assistant labourcommissioner, Ranchi initiatedprosecution process againstSvizera management forviolation of section 33(1)(b) andunfair labour practice resorted toas defined in section 2(ra) of FifthSchedule of Industrial DisputesAct, 1947 for not responding tothe show cause dated 5 Aprilissued to Svizera managementincluding its managing directorand others and ordered to submitwritten explanation within 24April which the management didnot comply with. The assistantlabour commissioner alsosubmitted a copy of the failure

reimbursement. Field workers are to claim thededucted amount in fresh expense reimbursementformat and to be submitted by 16 August, 2013.

Management also informed that they would explorethe possibilities in reimbursing expenses fortnightly inplace of existing monthly in order to streamline the delayin reimbursement. The anomaly existed in fitment ofbasic salary of one field worker (Bareilly) was corrected.Management agreed to reimburse the deducted fareof Sopore based field worker and to be paid in his nextreimbursement whereas assured to look into thedeductions made from the expense statements of oneJodhpur based field worker.

On behalf of the management, S. S. Aurora (V.P.-S&M); Ritu Sikka, associate director-HR; SandeepAnand, Director-S&M; sales managers- Vinod Sharma,Udaya Kumar K and D K Sudhir and on behalf ofwelfare committee, Kaushik Sarkar, Lindsay Melville,Hitesh Parekh, Mukesh Kumar and P C Thomassigned the minutes.

A delegation, led by FMRAI'ssecretary T K Rao, comprising ofall India Khandelwal councilleaders and conveners and jointconveners from eight states metthe management of KhandelwalLaboratories on 22 July atMumbai. On the delayed paymentof salaries and expenses,management assured timelypayments. Management alsoassured to call two days meeting

Meeting withKhandelwalManagement

in the month of September todiscuss the pending charter ofdemands and grievances of thefield workers. Managementsought co-operation from theunion on overall situation towhich the delegation assured toreciprocate in a posit ivemanner. S K Pai Kakode,director and Satyendra Pawar,HR executive represented themanagement.

Svizera in Legal Knotreport to BSSR Union advising, ifUnion feel, can raise disputeagainst discharge of services ofSantan Kumar in any appropriatecourt.

Earlier, as per all Indiaprogramme, Ranchi unit stageddemonstration before deputylabour commissioner, Ranchi on24 June demanding enquiry bythe government authorities aboutthe financial mismanagementand functioning of SvizeraHealthcare under the provisionof company law and lodgedcomplaint against nonenforcement of various provisionof S.P.E.Act by the management.

The assistant labourcommissioner, Ranchi issuednotice to the management andcalled a tripartite meeting on 16July directing the management tosubmit all relevant papers on orbefore 16 July. The managementdid not attend.

BSSR Union f i led acomplaint petition on 2 Aprilagainst unfair labour practiceresorted to by Svizeramanagement praying toprosecute the managementunder Section 33 of I.D. Act,1947,as managementdischarged Santan Kumarduring pendency of conciliation.

FMRAI NEWSAUGUST 2013

S T A T E N E W S

Printed by D P Dubey, published by D P Dubey on behalf of Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India and printed at SatyajugEmployees Co-operative Industrial Society Ltd. 13 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata-700 072 and published at 60-A, Charu Avenue Kolkata-700 033

EDITOR : D P DUBEY

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Rallies on StateRelated Demands

150 members of HPMRA, coming from Mandi, Shimla, Hamirpur,Dharamshala, Kangra and Solan, staged a daylong dharna in front ofstate labour commissioner's office at Shimla on 28 June and submitteda memorandum containing field workers' demands before stategovernments. CITU's Himachal Pradesh state president Jagat Ramand joint secretary Vijender Mehra, during their deliberations, criticizedthe State government for not conceding the just demands of the fieldworkers and called upon them to be prepared for higher struggle. Otherswho greeted and addressed on this occassion include HPMRApresident Hukam Sharma, vice president P K Sharma, general secretaryJagdish Thakur and FMRAI's working committee member N Kaushal.

MADHYA PRADESH CHHATTISHGARHIn pursuance of field workers' demands before the state

governments including notification and enforcement of minimumwages, state amendment of Section 2(s) of Industrial Disputes Act,withdrawal of illegal orders of both Madhya Pradesh and Chattishgarhgovernments disallowing entry of field workers in governmenthospitals; 8 hours work notification before Madhya Pradeshgovernment; and on other demands; around 500 MPMSRU membersorganized rallies, submitted memoranda to respective chief ministerand took out processions, separately at Bhopal and Raipur, on 16July. CITU and MPMSRU leaders greeted and addressed MPMSRUmembers assembled on this occasion.

In Bhopal, around 300 members coming from 17 units of MadhyaPradesh assembled in a public meeting at Yadgar-e-Sahajani park.The public meeting was addressed by CITU's M.P. State general

At Shimla

secretary Pramod Pradhan, MPMSRU's general secretary ShailendraSharma, joint general secretary Salil Shukla and all MPMSRU unitsleaders of Madhya Pradesh. MPMSRU's president Subir Talukdarpresided and vice president Anjana Dixit gave vote of thanks After thepublic meeting a colourfull rally was taken out from Yadgar-e-SahajaniPark to Neelam Park and submitted memorandum.

In Chattisgarh, around 200 field workers from all 5 units ofMPMSRU in Chhattisgarh attended the public meeting at Raipur.Chattisgarh state general secretary Ajit Lal addressed the gatheringand assured full support of CITU in pursuing state related demand offield workers. Others who spoke on this occasion include CPIM'sChhattisgarh State secretary and former FMRAI's secretary M.K.Nandy,FMRAI's secretary Naveen Gupta and MPMSRU's secretaries DevroopBiswas and

Sameer Moghe. MPMSRU's vice president N.P.Shukla presidedover. Following the public meeting, a massive rally was organizedwhich passed through Budhapara, Kalibadi and Police Line.

At Raipur

250 members of OSRU'sBerhampur district committeealong with 1500 members ofCITU staged massive dharnasand demonstration in front of theoffice of the Revenue DivisionalCommissioner (southern zone)on 24 July demanding immediatewithdrawal of the RDC's arbitraryand unlawful order whichdebarred the medicalrepresentatives from enteringinto the premises of the MKCGmedical college and hospital fortheir work.Memoranda weresubmitted to theChief Minister ofOdisha, healthminister and labourminister through theRDC. Theparticipants wereaddressed by AliKishore Pattnaik,secretariat memberof CPI(M) andCITU's vicepresident JudhistirBehera. Others whoaddressed thedharnas includeOSRU's joint general secretary BN Sahu; BEFI's Pratap

ODISHA

Massive Demonstrationbefore RDC Office

Choudhury; BDIEA's KishoreMishra and DYFI's Basanta

Nanda. Despite incessantrain and stormy weather,hundreds of workers fromdifferent organizationsnamely District NirmanSramik Sangh, GanjamDistrict Pachika SahaikaSangh, BEFI, BWECC,BDIEA and BPWUparticipated.

Earlier, against theRDC's order and indefense of their legal rightof unhindered work in thehospital, the members ofOSRU's Berhampurdistrict committee sat inrelay dharnas in front of

the RDC's office from 13 May to18 May.

OSRU Filed Writ PetitionAgainst RDC Order

On 23 July, OSRU filed a writ petition against thestate of Odisha, represented through its ChiefSecretary, Odisha; the Secretary, Department of Health& Family Welfare, Odisha; the Revenue DivisionalCommissioner, Southern Division, Berhampur; and theSuperintendent, MKCG Medical College and Hospital,Berhampur, Ganjam, Odisha against the impungedorder No.05/Dev. dated 12 February, 2013 of the Officeof the Revenue Divisional Commissioner, SouthernDivision, Berhampur, Odisha to the the Superintendent,MKCG Medical College & Hospital, Berhampur,Ganjam debarring entry of medical representativesinto the medical college and hospital campus.

70 members participated in ablood donation camp, jointlyorganised by OSRU's Keonjharunit and district Red Cross Bloodbank at district headquarterhospital. 58 units of blood weredonated by OSRU's Keonjhar unitmembers. Dr. BikramanandaMoharana, CDMO, was the chiefguest and inaugurated the camp.The other guests who werepresent include Dr. B. K. Behera,ADMO; Girija Mishra, CITU'sKeonjhar district joint secretary;district Red Cross joint secretaryA. R. Khan and blood bank in-charge Dr. Asit Kumar Mahapatra.Local print media covered thenews.

Blood Donation Camp in Keonjhar

IMA Khagaria district secretaryDr. Pinkesh Kumar, inauguratedKhagaria unit office on 16 July in aceremonious manner in presence oflarge number of unit members.Khagaria chemist &druggistassociation's president Rajiv Kumar,local CITU leaders Dange PrasadSingh and Sanjay Kumar; BSSRUnion's treasurer Kalyan Acharya,vice president Ajoy Kumar, unitleaders Amit Krishna Ranjan, NirajKumar, Sravan Kumar and otherswere present on this occasion.

New Unit in KhagariaBIHAR - JHARKHAND