AIBOC CIRCULAR NO. 01 DATED 01.01.2013

AIBOC issued its circular No. 01 dated 01.01.2013 welcoming the new year 2013. We are placing the same here for our readers

CIRCULAR NO. 01                                                                DATE: 01.01.2013

TO ALL AFFILAITES/MEMBERS

WELCOME THE NEW YEAR 2013

We bid adieu to a great year 2012 and we are on the threshold of yet another New Year which holds exciting promises.  As the New Year dawns on us, all we need to achieve is there in the beginning, ready to be rediscovered.  The deepest secrets, the greatest opportunities and challenges await us, spurring us to brace up to these evolving trends which will have far reaching impact on our movement, struggles and our well being.

Banking Industry is passing through the hardest phase of its existence in the background of mounting NPAs which have been increasing by leaps and bounds.  With a gloomy prospect of improvement in the GDP and the agrarian crisis coupled with dwindling industrial output, the Banking Industry will be passing through a patchy period.  With the passage of the amendments to Banking Regulation Act, the opening of the Banking Sector to Foreign Investors has been facilitated and thereby the Industrial houses, Corporates will be emboldened to play a major role in the affairs of the Public Sector Banks.

These imminent trends in the Banking Industry will impact the Trade Union Movement in the Banking Industry.  Every effort will be made to implement the Khandelwal Committee Recommendations, with which our efforts to achieve a good salary revision for the industry as a whole will be impeded.  The mounting NPAs will cast their spell on our efforts to bargain for a decent salary revision.  Hence, we have to intensify our struggle to achieve a fair salary revision   As the coming days will be replete with many challenges from various quarters, we have to be in preparedness for meeting the challenges squarely.

Concerted efforts are being made to break the unity among the Officers’ Community, through a reign of terror and intimidation.  The forces inimical to our movement have been making all out efforts to disrupt our unity and solidarity.  During this year of 10th Bipartite Settlement, we should be ever vigilant to guard the movement from the onslaught of the brute forces.

With the opening of the Banking Industry to foreign investors, corporate house in the guise of giving a boost to the capital base of the Banks, the Government of India is already on course to merge and consolidate the Banks into four or five big banks in the country.  We have not learnt lessons from the illusion of “too big to fail” in the USA  and Europe, where big banks   failed in the wake of the great recession of 2008.  With economic slowdown, our Banking Industry will also be affected adversely. The RBI which played a stellar role in insulating our Banking system from the avalanche of global recession of 2008 is expected to play a very crucial role in safeguarding our Banking system and put it on the performance trajectory.  

The government of India, has to restrict the fiscal deficit to a very low level and initiate concrete steps to curb inflation, to manage the demand-supply mechanism for food grains, edible oils and essential commodities.  The neo-liberal policies of the government of India, have lead to jobless growth, widening disparities between the rich and the poor, the haves and have not’s, increase in the number of the people below the poverty line, suicide by the farmers etc., The government’s efforts should be focused on generating more and more employment opportunities for the rural poor and educated youth.

The bygone year was marked by scams of colossal nature and the movements launched by Sri. Anna Hazare and Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, need to be sustained and supported by all of us, to see that our country emerges as a strong corruption free society.  We hope the Government will pass the Lokpal Bill covering the high and the mighty, with teeth to punish the corrupt with punitive action.  Similarly, the Government should also make an honest effort to bring back the black money siphoned off to foreign banks, by the big corporate houses, politicians, bureaucrats etc.,

The time has come for all of us to strengthen the moral fabric of our society which has been torn asunder, by assault on the women folk, innocent children, the daliths, adivasis etc.,  The recent brutal gang rape of a paramedical student at Delhi has stirred our conscience and the entire country stood up against such atrocities.  We hope the great battle waged by the brave girl will not go in vain.  The perpetrators will be given exemplary punishment; which should act as a deterrent. The social evils such as discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, creed need to be curbed.  The panacea for all this is to impart quality education among our children who remain the only hope of this great country.

We hope there will be peace amity among the nations of the world and the heinous acts of terrorism, invasion will disappear and all the nations and peoples of this globe will enjoy the fruits of peaceful co-existence.  The UNO  has a very important role to play in this process.

With all bright hopes for a globe which will be pervaded by peaceful co-existence, universal brotherhood, we will move on to achieve our dreams for yet another great year 2013, during which our hopes and aspirations for a comprehensively good salary package for all our officers, are squarely met, making 10th Bipartite Settlement yet another golden chapter in the history of our movement, struggles.

Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

Comrades, we take this opportunity to convey our Good Wishes for a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy and Wealthy New Year to All Our Members and their Families all over the country during the Year 2013.

WE WISH ALL OUR AFFILIATES, MEMBERS AND WELL WISHERS, A  HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2013.

With warm greetings,

Sd/-

(D.S. RISHABADAS)

GENERAL SECRETARY