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60-A Charu Avenue • Kolkata-700 033 • Phone : (033)24242862 • Fax : (033)24244943 • www.fmrai.org • E-mail : fmrainews@gmail.com

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Defeating management’s ill-attemptof sabotaging notified strike, 1531 Indocofield workers of all 12 divisions which isaround 80 per cent of total field forceceased sales promotion activities allover the country on 18 June and around900 of them sat in a day long dharna infront of company’s establishments inState capitals. Complete strike reportedby the field workers of all seven statesin North East, West Bengal, Odisha,Bihar-Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, in entire north-west which include Punjab-Chandigarh,Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir; Madhya Pradesh-Chattishgarh,Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh,Telengana, Tamilnadu, Kerala and waspartial in Gujarat and Karnataka. Amassive gate meeting in front of headoffice of the company at Mumbai washeld by 147 field Indoco field workersfrom entire Maharashtra including somefrom Mumbai city despite torrential rain.

The strike demands include formationof grievance committee; againstapproving/unaprroving of reports andwithholding/deducting salary andexpenses on that basis, locking ofreporting portal leading to work lock out

��������� ����� �� ������ ���� �������Disputes Act, 1947 for bringing changesin conditions of service. Further,management’s attempt of bringingchange in the service and workingconditions during the pendency ofFMRAI’s charter of demands in theTribunal is a clear case of unfair labourpractice.

To sabotage the strike managementapproached assistant labourcommissioner (ALC) with FMRAI’s strikenotice which proved to be counter-productive for them. ALC, on the contrary,called and heard both management andFMRAI and directed the management tohold discussion with FMRAI’s committeeon 16 June on the demands and submitthe minutes to avert the strike on thefollowing day. Being compelled,management met the committee butrefused to constitute the grievanceredressal forum and, accordingly, FMRAIsubmitted a letter about management’srefusal to ALC.

Striking Indoco field workers stageddharnas in remote places like Imphal andSilchar in the North-East and six placesof Uttar Pradesh. Dharnas were alsostaged before the company’s

etc. - all of which are emanated fromelectronic reporting system; arbitrarytransfers of sales promotion employeesin the name of new divisions bringingsubstantial change in their service andworking conditions etc. All the actions

are in contravention of laws asmanagement did not obtain requisitesanction from appropriate legal authoritiyfor shifting payroll process from manualto electronic nor issued notice asrequired under Section 9A of Industrial See page-2

T. V. Sridhar addressing the gate meeting before head office at Mumbai

���� ������ ������� ������ ����� �����������Succesful District Rallies in Uttar

Pradesh– Uttarakhand

March to Vidhan Sabha on6 July at Lucknow

On 17 June, thousands ofUPMSRA members across its72 units throughout the statesof Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand rallied andsubmitted memoranda to therespective district administrationin pursuance of their staterelated demands which includedeclaration of minimum wages;8 hours work notification; State

amendment of Section 2(s) ofthe I D Act etc., addressed tothe states’ chief ministers,labour ministers and healthministers. Prior to that, massivecampaigns were organizedthrough leaflet distribution, gatemeetings, hospital meetingsetc. during 1 to 15 June.

Earlier, special general bodySee page-2

At Banda

In pursuance of 6 demands of the field workersbefore state governments, a delegation of BSSRUnion led by president Anirban Bose along withvice president K D Pratap and secretary SubrataBiswas met the Jharkhand chief minister,Raghubar Das on 4 June and discussed on thedemands contained in the memorandum. Thedemands include withdrawal of Jharkhandgovernment’s order banning entry of salespromotion employees (SPEs) in governmenthospital; State amendment of Section 2(S) of I.D.Act; fixation of minimum wages Rs. 15,000 forthe SPEs; effective enforcement of SPE Act andJharkhand government’s notification on 8 hours

BSSRU Delegation met Jharkhand CMwork of SPEs and to declare May Day as publicholiday.

As advised by CM, the delegation met hisprincipal secretary, Sanjay Kumar who assuredto take up the hospital work matter withappropriate authorities for its resolution in thebackground of legal provisions, as pointed outby the delegation.

On other five demands, on the direction ofSanjay Kumar, a separate meeting with laboursecretary, Rahul Sharma, was held on the sameday. Rahul Sharma informed that very shortly theamendment will be notified as the departmenthad already amended Section 2(S) of I.D Act asper central advisory and the recommendation hadbeen sent to Assembly for approval; promised totable the demand of Rs. 15,000 as minimum wagein coming minimum wages board meeting andassured to invite BSSR Union representative intothat; instructed the state labour commissioner toissue a press release with working time scheduleof Jharkhand government and requested BSSRUto inform the office about names of the violatoremployers; assured to look into the matter ofenforcement of SPE Act and requested to takeup the matter of May Day as public holiday withappropriate authorities.

Again on 23 June, BSSRU delegation met thePrincipal Secretary of CM as a follow up onhospital work to which he assured to talk to healthsecretary for its solution.

Labour secretary Rahul Sharma (L), LabourCommissioner Praveen Toopo(R), AnirbanBose (Centre) and Subrata Biswas (Standing)

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Two days national Working Committee meeting of FMRAI, held on 13-14 June atKolkata, decided major action programmes including a day’s strike in pursuance offield workers’ pending demands before Central government on legal areas and peopleoriented medicine policies. Field workers will generate two separate movementalcurrents, from local level to state which will finally converge into countrywide generalstrike by field workers sometime in December, 2016.

Meanwhile, responses of the Central government on both the areas are availablebefore FMRAI. Labour officials of the Central government assured FMRAI delegationon 28 May that the first meeting of the Industrial Tripartite Committee for the SalesPromotion Employees would be convened within a month. Yet, considering the overallpolicy directions of the Central government, the Working Committee meeting concretizedmovemental plan, without having any illusion. It is to be noted that the Modi government,immediately after assuming power dismantled the Tripartite Committee in July, 2014and had to restore in October, 2014 following country-wide agitation by the fieldworkers.

Further, with respect to medicine related demands of FMRAI, the government at thecentre seemed to have tried to hide its face. The Ministry of Commerce, the Departmentof Pharmaceuticals and the office of the Drugs Controller General (India) attempted tomislead and maneuver while responding to the memoranda, sent by FMRAI’s state andlocal units, to the prime minister on national protest day on 19 January, this year.

On the question of revival of the public sector pharma units in the memoranda, theresponses from the two different Under Secretaries to the Union government, from theministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers appear as far from the truth. The letter dated 30April says, “the Department of Pharmaceuticals is making sincere efforts to implementthe revival scheme of HAL/BCPL and IDPL”. And, the other letter dated 2 June from thesame ministry states, “the process of revival packages of IDPL and HAL are beingfinalized and prepared for seeking approval of BRPSE & Cabinet” and, further mentions,“Govt. is providing adequate budgetary support to the PSUs as per their requirement”.Just one example would suffice to expose the reality which is contrary to the rhetoricof the government officials. As against the request of the Secretary of Pharmaceuticalsfor Rs. 871.63 crores as budget allocation, a meager Rs. 210 crores was given followingreview by the finance ministry out of which the pharma PSUs budget alone wasreduced from Rs. 144 crores to Rs. 0.4 crores! Further, field workers of HAL alone arenot getting their salaries / expenses since several months for which FMRAI and CITUhad to intervene!

In respect of drug pricing, government’s communication reiterated its justificationof market based price fixing, tax structure etc. which, as admitted by them, to provide“sufficient opportunity for innovation and competition to support the growth of theindustry”. The government’s communication expressed more concern for the industrythan the common hapless people of the country who are already under tremendousprice burden. Under pressure from drug lobby led by multinationals, just on the eve ofthe prime minister’s US trip in September, 2014, the Modi government withdrew 10 Julyorder of NPPA which brought 108 formulations under price caps. Indeed, Centralgovernment is working day night for the growth of the industry!

But, the most startling comments came from ministry of commerce. In theircommunication, they shamelessly advocated for the setting of US FDA offices inIndia, appointment of inspectors etc.! The letter mentioned that “It is natural that USwould insist on USFDA regulation on manufacturing units earmarked for supplies toUS market situated anywhere in the world” and, therefore, “it is reasonable to allowtheir offices/inspections of Indian manufacturing units catering to US market”. Willthe Obama administration allow setting up DCGI office in US and conducting inspectionin US drug companies by Indian inspectors? Then, why should India allow the USFDAto put embargo on Indian pharma companies and to ease the marketing competitionfor the multinationals in both domestic and foreign markets?

The letter further stated that “WTO allows governments to act on trade in order toprotect human, animal or plant life or health, provided they do not discriminate or usethis as disguised protectionism”. Based on this, Indian Patents Act, 1970 was amendedin 2005 to make it TRIPS compliant as required under WTO regime. Then, why was itnecessary for Modi to constitute a think tank with the Indian and US industrialists toreview IPR matters? The existing patent law stands as a stumbling block on the MNCs’way for monopolized patented market for drugs and pharmaceuticals. Hence, MNCsare exerting tremendous pressure and the Modi government wants to help them throughbackdoor ignoring Indian Parliament, endangering country’s sovereignty and self-reliance.

The drugs and healthcare policy of the Modi government, too, is in conformity withits overall pro-corporate policy directions. The land acquisition bill, labour law reforms,etc are all integrated. Field workers of the country, while joining in united generalresistance against such anti-people, anti workers and pro-corporate policies, willvigorously pursue their sectional demands developing independent resistance. WorkingCommittee, in this background, decided to launch massive public campaign, dharna/demonstrations/conventions at district and state level, massive dharna before USFDAoffice at Delhi in November and country-wide strike in December which remain as themost urgent task before FMRAI’s next Conference at Ernakulam in 2016.

On Policy Demands

Why Field WorkersNation-wide Strike

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� JULY 2015 �

establishments in Guwahati, Bhopal,Vijaywada, Ranchi, Indore, Madurai, Chennai,Kolkata, Lucknow, Ambala, Hyderabad,Cuttack, Raipur, Kochi, Jaipur and Patna.FMRAI’s united platform of councils held gatemeetings there, addressed by leaders ofFMRAI, State units and Indoco council.Despite heavy rain, 147 striking workers withMSMRA members staged demonstrationbefore the company’s head office at Mumbaidespite impediments created by local policeat the behest of the management. FMRAI’sjoint general secretary K B Kadam, its workingcommittee member T V Shridhar, MSMRAleader Rajesh Kulkarni, Indoco all Indiaconvener R. Ambarshetty and othersaddressed the gathering.

FMRAI’s secretariat congratulated theIndoco field workers for their determined andresolute fight for establishing trade union,collective bargaining and legal rights. Shortly,Indoco all India council meeting will be calledto take stock of the situation and to decidefuture course.

meetings were organized atVaranasi, Allahabad, Lucknow,Kanpur, Moradabad, Haldwani,Bareilly, Meerut, Aligarh, Agra,Jaunpur, Balliya, Mirzapur, Pilibhit,Sitapur, Lakhimpur, Shahjahanpur,Azamgarh, Mau, Etawah andMathura which were addressed bythe office bearers of UPMSRA.Such meetings were organized atother places like Shamli,Barabanki, Mahoba, Farrukabadwere addressed by the regionalleadership. Around 3000 UPMSRAmembers attended the meetings.

Following district levelprogramme, thousands of fieldworkers from districts of UttarPradesh shall assemble atLucknow and will sit in dharnabefore Vidhan Sabha to press theirdemands before state governmenton 6 July. The date of rally atDehradun will be decided soon.

������ �������� from page-1 UPMSRA Rallyfrom page-1

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The Competition Commission of India(CCI) imposed Rs 60 crore penalty onmultinational pharma majorsGlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Rs 3 croreon Sanofi India for their involvement inunfair trade practices. The CCI alsodirected both companies to refrain fromsuch activities which are in contraventionto the competition act.

Both GSK and Sanofi were found guiltyin manipulation to procure governmenttenders for supplying meningitis vaccinerequired for the annual Hajj pilgrims. It canalso be noted that the action of governmentof India in introducing and modifying theturnover conditions for the tender withoutany reasonable explanation actually helpedthese two multinational giants. Due tomodifications of eligibility conditions, bothcompanies colluded to divide the entiretendered quantities and earned huge profitsdespite quoting higher prices.

• The year 2015 was made as deadlinefor achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals

• India still ranks 55th out of 76 countriesand stays behind neighbouringNepal and Sri Lanka on the GlobalHunger Index.

• 1/6th of Indian population isundernourished

• 1 in 4 children in India aremalnourished

• 19 crore people in India have no foodsecurity and go hungry daily

• 30.7% children of India aged below5 are underweight

• 3000 children in India die daily frompoor-diet related illness

• 24% of deaths of children agedbelow five globally is in India

• 30% of global neo-natal deaths is inIndia

• 58% of children in India are stuntedbefore they are 2-years old

(Input: Times of India)

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Number of rich and social inequalityincreasing simultaneously

Following the downturn, the world economy has touched its abysmal low growth.But, that does not desist the rich to become super rich. The accumulation ofwealth in the hands of a few individuals and their families are growing enormouslywhile the gap between rich and poor is further widening and leading to increasedsocial inequality. According to the report, “global wealth 2015: winning the growthgame”, published by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), global private financialwealth grew by nearly 12 percent in 2014 to reach a total of $164 trillion.

The report divided the rich in three categories – (i) rich (those with more than$1 million and up to $ 20 million in private wealth), (ii) highly rich (more than $20million and up to $ 100 million) and (iii) ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) households(those with above $100 million).

The report says that the total number of millionaire households globally reached17 million in 2014 from 15 million in 2013. They held 41 percent of global privatewealth in 2014, up from 40 percent a year earlier, and are projected to hold 46percent in 2019.

Private wealth held by handful UHNW households grew by a strong 11 percentin 2014. These households dominate with 6 per cent of the world’s total privatewealth amounting $10 trillion. It is expected that, within next five years they willcapture 12 per cent of the global private wealth projecting an estimated $222trillion in 2019.

In India, the number of UNHW households has grown by three folds between2013 (the number was 284) and 2014 (the number became 928). India achievedfourth position in terms of number of millionaires after USA, China and GreatBritain. It is anticipated that the growth in number of millionaires in India would bethe highest for the next five years.

(Input:�http://www.bcgindia.com)

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CGC Meeting in Sun PharmaA purposeful meeting

between FMRAI’s centralgrievance committee (CGC) andSun Pharmaceuticals IndustriesLimited was held at Mumbai on25 June on the agendasubmitted by all India convener.This was the second suchmeetings following the Ranbaxy- Sun Pharma merger. Minutesof this meeting and the firstmeeting held on 27 March weresigned together. The meetingwas held in a cordial atmosphereand ended in a positive tone.

Management agreed torelease the pending long serviceaward and CGC to share the listof such cases; field workers’pending medicalreimbursements; and pendingpayment of differences onbonus for which CGC to providethe specific period. Managementalso agreed to make necessarycorrection in the electronic leavemanagement system (ELMS)as per the leave provisionsunder the SPE Act and fieldworkers are to complete theirinputs by 15 July so as tocomplete reconciliation process.Management agreed to declare1st May as holiday for the fieldworkers all over the country from2016.

On the pending transferissues, it was mutually agreed

All India council meeting of Sun-Ranbaxy was held at Kolkataon 16 June. The discussion took place on a written note placedby All India convener. The meeting noted the grievances andissues for discussion in the CGC meeting on 25 June. Mainarea of discussion and decisions were on organizational area.The meeting assessed the membership renewal position ofPharmacare and Stancare; the status of organising field workersin Sun Pharma platform, from local unit to state and re-emphasised Ranbaxy council leaders to lead in co-ordinationwith State units within next six months. The meeting alsoprepared Ranbaxy state council meetings’ schedule and decidedto complete special fund collection by end June, 2015. Themeeting elected Rajendra Reddy as joint zonal convener ofsouth zone which had fallen vacant.

Conveners of all four state units of eastern zone; UPMSRAand RMSRU; MPMSRU, MSMRA and GSMRA; and APMSRU,TMSRU, TNMSRA and KMSRA; all four zonal and joint zonalconveners except south zone; and all India joint all Indiaconveners attended the meeting.

AIC Meeting of Sun-Ranbaxy

upon that concerned fieldworkers would be transferredback to their originalheadquarter/state/zone within amaximum time limit of 15months from the date of theirjoining in the transferred place.In respect of high value inputs,field workers are to implementthe distribution as per the listfinalized in the cycle meeting. Inthe next CGC meeting, detaildiscussion on regional grievancecommittee (RGC) would takeplace.

Management also respondedthe letter dated 27 March, 2015 of

all India convener through theirreply dated 24 June which formeda part of the minute of the meetingof 25 June. Corroborating thecontention of all India convener,management in their replymentioned that, “the salespromotion employees of erstwhileRanbaxy shall have servicecontinuity in their jobs afteramalgamation with their existingterms and conditions of theirappointment letter and subjectalways to clause 13(a) and 13(b)of the Scheme of Arrangementand to all extant laws includinglabour laws in this regards”.

Wage Settlement in Strassenburgimproved. Rs. 20 was added toexisting headquarter and ex-headquarter allowances andRs. 30 to outstation allowancethus making it Rs. 136, Rs. 143and Rs. 220 respectively andshall be paid with effect from 1June, 2015 which will increasedby Rs.5 with effect from 1April, 2016 and again will beincreased by Rs. 5 with effectfrom 1 April, 2017. The existingLTA of Rs. 2000 was increasedto Rs. 2600 annually in thissettlement.

On behalf of themanagement, Biswapati Mitra,manager (P&A); ArabindaBhattacharjee, GM-finance andSantanu Dasgupta, GM-marketing and on behalf ofFMRAI, its general secretary,A. K. Banerjee; secretarySantanu Chatterjee andnegotiating committeemembers- Biplab Chakrabortyand Santanu Roy signed thesettlement.

Separately, a memorandumof understanding on electronicreporting system was signedon the same day within theparameters of existing labourlaws applicable for the salespromotion employees includingthe provisions of SPE Act soas to ensure not to adversely

8th successive wagesettlement betweenStrassenburg PharmaceuticalsLimited and FMRAI for allconfirmed field workersdesignated as professionalservice representative wassigned on 1 June, 2015.Strassenburg is a Kolkatabased company havingmarketing operations in WestBengal, Bihar-Jharkhand,Odisha, NE region, UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh-Chattishgarh, Andhra Pradesh,Telengana and Tamilnaduemploying around 295 fieldworkers. The settlement is forthree years, effective from 1April, 2015 and shall remainvalid till 31 March, 2018 andwas signed under theprovisions of I.D. Act. The

settlement shall derive aminimum benefit of Rs. 1775and maximum benefit would beRs. 2683 as on the date ofsigning.

Upward improvement of theexisting pay scale was madeby adding Rs.500 at the entrypoint and Rs. 25 in the rate ofincrement in all slabs. Becauseof upward improvement ofbasic salary and rise in thevariable dearness allowance,there will be consequential risein the house rent. Further, Rs.625 was added in both theservice slabs of specialallowance thus, increased toRs.1250 for the field workersupto 15 years of service andabove 15 years to Rs. 1375 permonth. All the components ofdaily allowances were upwardly

Palamu labour superintendantissued notice to Adcock

The labour superintendant, Daltonganj, Jharkhand issued notice(No. 539) on 26 June to Adcock Ingram to produce overtime andwage register in respect of Daltonganj based sales promotionemployee (SPE) before his office on 10 July at 12 noon failingwhich necessary legal action shall be initiated against theCompany.

In February this year, one field manager was found workingwith company’s SPE till 9 pm, beyond the notified time scheduleof Jharkhand government, against which BSSR Union lodged acomplaint against the management with a copy to labourdepartment. Management in their response dated 6 May thoughadmitted to work beyond time schedule but attempted to justifyit. Later, BSSR Union in a delegation met the Dlatonganj laboursuperintendant and submitted Union’s rejoinder on management’sresponse.

In the notice of 26 June, labour superintendant also allegedthat management is not paying overtime salary but compellingthe workman to work beyond notified time schedule which is inviolation of Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

affect the service and workingconditions.

Field workers are to reporttwice in a week i.e. on Mondayand Thursday in mutuallydecided format. In case of non-submission of report, thesystem will remain open for 15calendar days and thereafter,concerned SPE is to contact

administrative departmentthrough e-mail. Managementwill impart necessary trainingto the field workers and shallreimburse Rs. 250 per monthin this regard. Managementalso agreed to discuss andresolve bilaterally anydifficulties/problems arising outof this reporting system.

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140 MSMRA members including 8 women of Nasik unitattended a convention on their state related demands on 26 June.MSMRA’s secretary M S Ranade explained the demands. FormerIMA’s president of Nasik Dr. Nivedita Pawar was the chief guestwho greeted the participants in support of the demands. Theconvention demanded of the state government for immediatecorrection of the notification on working hours of the salespromotion employees issued in January, last year. Others whospoke include MSMRA’s working committee member HarshalNaik and its Nasik unit secretary Ganesh Khairnar.

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from page-4199 delegates attended Burdwan district AGB meeting held

on 7 May at Durgapur and was inaugurated by CITU’s districtsecretary and former Member of Parliament Bansha GopalChowdhury. District secretary Debotosh Chakroborty andtreasurer Anjan Halder placed their reports which were adoptedfollowing discussion by 18 participants. WBMSRU’s seretaryAniruddha Chowdhury concluded the meeting. (photo)

Hooghly district annual general body meeting was attendedby 185 delegates, held on 10 May at Rishra. WBMSRU’s vicepresident Arpita Mitra Roy inaugurated. Reports placed bydistrict secretary Rupam Chatterjee and treasurer TanmoyMukherjee were adopted after discussion by 26 delegates.FMRAI’s general secretary Aloke Kumar Banerjee, CITU’sMalay Sarkar, WBMSRU’s general secretary SumahanChakraborty and others addressed. Rs. 2250 was collected fromthe participants towards Nepal earthquake victims. A presidiumcomprising of Biswajit Ghosh, Ashim Ghosal, Subrata Dhar AndDebasish Roy Choudhury conducted the proceedings.

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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

Registration No. WBENG/2001/6430 Postal Registration No. KOL RMS/106/2013-2015

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94 elected delegatesincluding 5 women, from allunits of HPMRA, attended their6th state conference held atShimla during 20-21 June.HPMRA’s president HukamSharma hoisted the red flag. Acolourful procession was takenout which was culminated intoa public meeting near thedistrict collector’s office. CITU’sdistr ict secretary VijenderMehra, FMRAI’s secretary R PSingh and others addressed.

Chairman of the receptioncommittee and the mayor of theShimla municipal corporationSanjay Chouhan welcomed thedelegates. The conference wasinaugurated by HimachalPradesh CITU’s vice presidentand former MLA RakeshSingha. The inaugural sessionwas addressed by IMA’s statepresident Dr. Anil Puri; CITU’sstate general secretary Dr.Kashmir Singh Thakur; Simlamunicipal corporation’s deputy

mayor Tikender Singh Panwar;kishan sabha’s state presidentDr. Kuldeep Singh Tanwar andleaders of AIDWA, SFI andDYFI besides FMRAI andHPMRA leaders.

In the delegate session,HPMRA’s general secretaryJagdish Thakur and treasurerVinay Kapoor placed theirrepor ts which wereunanimously adopted followingdiscussion by 15 participantsfrom Mandi, Shimla,Dharamshala, Solan, Una,Hamirpur, Bilaspur andJassure units. FMRAI’sworking committee memberNarender Kaushal addressedthe delegates. FMRAI’ssecretary R P Singhconcluded. The conferenceelected the new statecommittee consisting 9 officebearers and 15 workingcommittee members re-electing Hukam Sharma aspresident, Jagdish Thakur asgeneral secretary and VinayKapoor as treasurer.

R. P. Singh addressing the public meeting

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signatures from the salespromotion employees acrossMaharashtra in support of theirdemands before the stategovernment which includeenhancement of minimumwages; removal of wageceiling on bonus and ESICbenefit; extension of ESICbenefits to all sales promotionemployees; 8 hours work andother state related issues;MSMRA launched massivecampaign programme on itsfoundation day on 3 June. Onthe day, 26 MSMRA unitsorganized general bodymeetings involving IndianMedical Association,chemists’ association and

other trade unions which wereattended by 1841 members.MSMRA flags were hoisted inall these units. Tree plantationand blood donation campswere organized at manyplaces. Members distributedsweets amongst chemists and

stockists at places like Hingoliand others.

The memoranda containingdemands with 10,000signatures would be submittedto the Maharashtra chiefminister and labour ministerduring the first week of July.

Meeting at Solapur

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The trade union workshop, organized byOSRU at Cuttack during 9-10 May, wasattended by its state committee members and

district committees’ office bearers. Thetwo days workshop was conducted byCITU’s all India vice president J SMajumdar and its Odisha state vicepresident Janardan Pati. Topics like‘specific situation in pharmaceuticalindustry and specific movement ofsales promotion employees’; ‘onintegration of sectoral and generalmovement’; ‘present economic crisisand its impact’ and ‘democraticfunctioning’ were discussed in four

different sessions. After presentation of theapproach paper group discussions were heldwhich was followed by question-answer session.

J S Majumdar conducting the session

AGB Meetings

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���-$,45 members of GoaMRA’s North Goa unit attended their

annual general body meeting on 17 May which was inauguratedby Salim Patel. General secretary R. Hiremath addressed theparticipants. Report placed by the unit secretary was adoptedfollowing discussion. The new unit committee was elected withNeelesh Bagkar as president, Sushil Raut as secretary andAmol as treasurer.

106 members of UPMSRA’s Meerut unit attended their annualgeneral body meeting on 26 April. UPMSRA’s vice presidentSanjay Narang inaugurated. Reports placed by the unit secretaryParvindar Singh and treasurer Aash Mohammad were adoptedafter discussion. A 15 member unit committee was elected withMayank Gaur as president, Parvindar Singh as secretary andVikash Negi as treasurer.

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120 MPMSRU members of its Raipur unit attended their annualgeneral body meeting on 19 April. MPMSRU’s president S KTalukdar addressed. Reports placed by the unit secretary,treasurer and council subcommittee convener were discussedand adopted. The meeting felicitated three former members ofthe organization namely Ashoke Ganguly, Sudhir Goverdhan andN P Shukla who attained their superannuation.

294 delegates of Darjeeling district attended their annualgeneral body meeting on 3 May. Ashok Bhattacharjee, formerminister of West Bengal Left front government, while inauguratingthe meeting appreciated the pivotal role played by FMRAI onmedicine related and other issues. Others who addressed include

CITU’s district secretary Saman Pathak; newly elected councilorKamal Agarwal and WBMSRU’s secretariat member Sumit Roy.Reports placed by district secretary Santanu Mitra and treasurerSubrata Bhattacharjee were adopted following discussion by 15participants. The meeting felicitated Ashok Bhattacharya, KamalAgarwal and WBMSRU’s Darjeeling district president Ashim Sahafor winning as councilors in the recently held municipal corporationelection. WBMSRU’s treasurer Sisir Saha concluded the meeting.A presidium consisting of Ashim Saha, Ashes Bannerjee andSantanu Roy conducted the proceedings. See page-3