Vol. XII No.

8 KOLKATA

FMRAI NEWS
Organ of Federation of Medical And Sales Representatives Associations of India

Rs.3 1 APRIL 2013

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

CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen, MP to Government:

Foreign Direct Investment to Direct Jobloss Mass Dismissals in Cosme Farma Contract Job in Adcock

By separate letters to the Union Labour, Finance and Commerce ministers on 20 March, CITUs general secretary Tapan Sen, MP has drawn their attention on the unlawful termination and unilateral change in service conditions of the sales promotion employees of Cosme Farma Laboratories following its acquisition by Adcock Ingram Healthcare Private Limited. Cosme Farma resorted to mass dismissals of the sales promotion employees; and the foreign company Adcock unilaterally changed service conditions of the sales promotion employees during pendency of their disputes in industrial tribunal in gross violation of the laws of the land. Foreign-take-over of Indian pharmaceutical company led to jobloss of large number of employees, Tapan Sen wrote. Immediately after FMRAIs Kolkata conference and challenging the unanimously adopted resolution of the conference, Cosme Far ma dismissed all sales promotion employees en masse, who did not resign from Cosme Farma and refused to accept the contract job, offered by Adcock. FMRAI raised industrial dispute against these dismissals with the labour commissioner in Goa and also challenged the same in the industrial tribunal where two disputes are already pending on common charter of demands and against 42 victimisations. FMRAIs conference resolution demanded job transfer from Cosme Farma to Adcock Ingram without changing their conditions of service and legally valid appointment letter in FormA of the SPE Act. FMRAIs several state and district units filed complaints with the state labour commissioners and state drug controllers demanding prosecution and immediate suspension of sales promotion of Cosme-Adcock products by illegal persons under drugs and labour laws. Notices to Adcock Ingram were sent by the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal in March, 2013 for violations of various provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 directing the management to attend meetings. Kerala gover nment called meeting on 15 April. Odisha, North East region, Bihar-Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab-Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarh and Tamilnadu state units submitted memoranda to respective state labour departments and drug control authorities; and in more than 140 districts the demands have been raised for suspension of sales promotion activities through unauthorized persons of Adcock management. At several places, based on complaints to labour and drug control authorities, FIRs / general diaries are being registered with local police. Kerala state unit KMSRA met police
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The International Womens Day on 8 March was observed by the women field workers and members of FMRAI throughout the country, independently and jointly with other women organisations, by way of rallies, procession, conventions, hall meetings etc. dealing the issues of job security and equal wages; for protection of legal rights; against atrocities on women; for social security and safety; against gender inequality, discrimination and harassment particularly in work places and demanding proper reservation for women.

International Womens Day

Gearing up for countrywide strike

Protesting against unfair labour practices resorted to by the management by way of transfers, issuing stop work notices, taking punitive actions in violation of rules of natural justice including, issuing illegal show cause /charge sheets on the basis of sales including the convener of Maharashtra, declaring partial territorial lockouts, non - payment of wage and expenses and arbitrary deductions and on other issues; 87 Svizera field workers of Maharashtra resorted to a lightning strike on 19 March. The striking field workers staged a day long dharna in front of the head office of the company at Govandi, Mumbai on that day, joined by other MSMRA members. A gate meeting was held there which was addressed by MSMRA leader M. S. Ranade and others. Management tried to disrupt the strike by coercing the field workers and misleading the administration but failed on both counts.

Lightning Strike by Svizera Field Workers in Maharashtra

At Thrissur Salem unit of TNMSRA organized a meeting, addressed by AIDWA leaders Vairamani and Raheema Biwi; CITU leader K C Gopikumar and others. In Kolkata, WBMSRUs women field workers participated in the central rally, organized by four womens organizations, which started from Ramlila Maidan, Moulali and culminated into a mass meeting at the Metro Channel, Esplanade where eminent leaders of womens movement Shyamali Gupta, Banani Biswas and Minati Ghosh greeted. Earlier, on 16 February, a convention was organized by this forum at CITUs West Bengal state committees office Shramik Bhawan, where Arpita Mitra Roy, on behalf of WBMSRU, addressed. In Burdwan, a hall meeting was organized which was addressed by Gargi Banerjee, leader of AIDWA, West Bengal. A hall meeting at Patna was attended by the members of BSSRU. The women subcommittee of KMSRA Thrissur organized a meeting at unions office premises. Women activists and leaders of KMSRA Sindhu A S; Mary Anila Paul; Vidya Rajan; Mini Suresh and Susmitha addressed the meeting. It was followed by a rally which started from unions office and reached Thrissur Swaraj Round to join the central rally organized by All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA). Jabalpur unit of MPMSRU organized a convention which was addressed by Anjana Dixit, vice president, MPMSRU; Anjana kurariya and Shaila Shukla of Akhil Bharitya Janwadi Mahila Samiti. Women field workers of Varanasi, Kanpur and Lucknow units of UPMSRA and Cuttack unit of OSRU also celebrated the day.

Two Decades Economic Reform

Two Predicaments
l In 2013, 55 Indians figure on the Forbes list of world billionaire, up from 48 last year. Their total net worth is $193.6 billion, i.e. Rs. 10.5 trillion (1 trillion = one lakh crore ) l The 55 wonder-wallets give India fifth rank in the world billionaires on the Forbes list. The four countries ahead of India are U.S., China, Russia and Germany l India ranks 136 out of 186 nations in the 2013 United Nations Human Development Index l The top 10 are worth $102.2 billion, a bit more than countrys fiscal deficit of $96 billion l Since 2005- 06, taxes and duties for the corporate world and the rich have been written off at the rate of Rs. 7 million a minute on average. Duties waived on gold and diamonds in the last 36 months equal the 2G scam amount l Per capita net availability of food grain per day which was 474.9 grams during 1992- 96 came down to 444.6 grams in 2007-11 l In the Global Hunger Index of 2012, India ranks 65 among 79 hungriest nations, eight slots below Rwanda and worse than its position in 1996 (From an article by P Sainath, The Hindu, 16 March, 2013)

In a subsequent development, management issued show cause notices to individual striking field workers for resorting to collective action to which MSMRA would take up the matter with management and legal authorities appropriately. The all India Svizera council meeting, held on 11 March at Nagpur assessed that despite conciliatory approach by FMRAIs committee, the existing bilateral relationship got strained due to adamant attitude of the management which has forced the

Svizera field workers to resort to agitation. The meeting also decided to resor t to a days country-wide strike on 23 April in pursuance of settlement of charter of demands pending since July, 2011, against large scale victimizations including all India convener and other leading functionaries by way of illegal terminations, transfers, suspension, wage cuts, headquarter confinement declaring partial lockouts, stop work, non payment of benevolent funds violating settlement provision etc.

APRIL 2013

FMRAI NEWS

Editorial

FMRAI NEWS
l APRIL 2013 l

Oppose attack on profession, job and right to work

An order of the Revenue Divisional Commissioners (RDC) of the Central and Southern divisions of Odisha debarred the entry of Medical Representatives into the medical college and hospital campus and, thereby put an embargo on their right to work in Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar; SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack and MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur. The order mentioned that frequent entries of the medical representatives are affecting the service delivery of the institution as reason for imposing such embargo. The agitated field workers resorted to protest actions, staged demonstrations before RDC offices at Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar, delegations met state labour commissioner and health minister. Surprisingly, the minister informed that the order was issued without his knowledge and Government of Odisha was unaware of it. Following the resolution on newer forms of attack, adopted in 23rd conference of FMRAI at Kolkata, this development of Odisha was the first revelation that vindicates the essence of the resolution about the danger on the profession and right to work of the field workers. But where the RDC order went wrong? Is it only due to posing threat of the job security of thousands of medical representatives of Odisha? The order of the RDC was an arbitrary decision and challenged the provisions of Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 and a deep rooted conspiracy of multinational corporations. Section 15 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and Government of Indias subsequent GSR No. 843 dated 29.5.1967 has two parts. It says that only medical detailers, as appointed by manufacturers and others having drug licenses, are authorized for sales promotion and already in the legally identified areas reading as, confined only to the registered medical practitioners, hospitals, dispensaries, medical and research institutions, and Chemists and Druggists or pharmacies duly licensed under the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules. (underline added for emphasis) Medical detailers are Sales Promotion Employees of pharmaceutical industry, as identified by the Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court in H. R. Adyanthaya case in 1994. They are workers with their full right to work like other workers and have clearly defined their areas of work as mentioned above. Therefore, the said order of the RDC, banning the entry of medical representatives in government hospitals, was in violations of right to work in legally identified areas for the sales promotion employees of pharmaceutical industry. The vested interest are behind the curtain. Huge bribery and funding by the foreign drug corporates, in connivance with government administrators and their political bosses, are involved to grab the robust Indian pharma market and to prepare a ground for a patent regime for drugs and pharmaceuticals in India. It has surfaced that a Kerala based retail chemist chain would open its shops inside the premises of all medical college hospitals in Odisha to sell so called generic medicines and one such has already been inaugurated by the health minister himself who, during his assembly speech, advised the doctors to prescribe medicines only in their generic names. The vested interest of patent holders is further revealed in the news item on 27 March edition of Times of India which says some of the biggest multinational pharma companies providing 4.5 million to the international police agency, Interpol, to crack down on fake/counterfeit medicines. In the past, genuine generic drugs from India have been seized on allegations of being counterfeit. It is in this background, 23rd conference of FMRAI, held at Kolkata between 4 to 7 February, adopted resolution against Newer Forms of Attack. The resolution identified the new attacks together on the medical representatives and the medical practitioners. The legal identity and legal right to work of the sales promotion employees need to be protected as top priority through legal appointment letters and legal identity card and their work in hospitals and institutions and with the registered medical practitioners without any ban or restriction. Field workers will never surrender and will continue to oppose in protection of profession, job and right to work.
2

OSRU Challenged Illegal RDC Order

OSRU members of Cuttack and Berhampur staged mass demonstrations and submitted memoranda to the respective offices of the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), Odisha on 15 and 17 February, protesting against orders of its southern and central divisions, putting embargo on the entry of medical representatives into the medical college and hospital campus. The order of the RDC was against the existing labour and drug laws
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which were challenged by OSRU. (see Editorial ) A delegation led by CITUs vice president Janardan Pati, FMRAIs treasurer Parta Rakshit and OSRUs general secretary Subhankar Das met health minister on 6 March. Surprisingly, the health minister informed the delegation that he was unaware of the said order issued by the RDCs. Earlier, on 21 February, a
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delegation led by OSRU president Bijoy Das and its secretary P K Samal met the labour commissioner, government of Odisha on the said issue at Bhubaneshwar. Further, joint secretary to the government Anand Chandra Sial, IAS, issued a memo on 19.3.2013 to the additional secretary to government, health & family welfare department requesting him to look into the matter and to take appropriate action and marked a copy of the same to the general secretary, OSRU.

Guwahati

commissioners in 5 major cities and police supers in 12 districts on this issue. Management of Adcock failed to attend tripartite meeting even in its head office city Bangalore on 15 and 18 March, but finally attended meeting on 22 March. Karnataka deputy labour commissioner directed the management to produce the documents concerning the sale deed between the two companies and agreement on job transfers of the field workers and employment letters offered by Adcock in the next meeting on 2 April. In Kolkata meeting, the managements representative signed the minute of the joint meeting held on 15 March assuring to convey the issues to the head office management. Next meeting is posted on 12 April. In Andhra Pradesh, Adcock management did not attend meeting on 12 March, which was called by the joint commissioner of labour at Hyderabad in continuation of earlier meetings. Meanwhile, on the submission of APMSRU about mass dismissals of 17 field workers in the state, joint commissioner of labour directed P. R Hegde, managing director of Cosme Farma to show cause as to why he should not be prosecuted for violation of Section 25FF read with Section 25F of Industrial Disputes Act1947 within 7 days. Notices have been issued by Chhattisgarh labour commissioner and district labour authorities of Satna in Madhya Pradesh; by Trichy labour department and joint meeting is called at Madurai on 3 April. As per the advice of assistant labour commissioner in the meeting on 19 March, Burdwan unit of WBMSRU provided the name, e-mail ID and phone numbers of concern Adcock managers for calling tripartite meeting on 2 April. In the meantime, Adcock managers are facing demonstrations of FMRAI members in the field. Companys business in January, February and March remained very muted as admitted by the management. As some direct feelers are being exchanged, FMRAI suspended all direct agitational programmes against Adcock till 15 April.

Cosme FarmaAdcock

by Bijon Das, general secretary, CRU. Bhaba Haloi, district president, hoisted the flag. The conference unanimously adopted the reports placed by the secretary and the treasurer and elected the new district committee with Dipanwita Chakraborty as president, Pranjit Kar as secretary and Dipayan Chakraborty as treasurer.

Deputy Commissioner Felicitated Dhanbad Unit

On 17 March, Prashant Kumar, deputy commissioner of Dhanbad, felicitated the members of BSSRUs Dhanbad unit along with ten other organizations for their regular involvement in various social welfare activities which include blood donation. The programme was held at the Indian Red Cross Society building which was attended by district development commissioner Ratan Kr Gupta; Dr. A K Singh, president, IMA Jharkhand state committee and Dr. Allauddin, joint secretary of Red Cross Society of Dhanbad beside others. FMRAIs working committee member Asim Halder and Dhanbad units president Kundan Mukherjee received the memento on behalf of the union.

More than 300 members of WBMSRU, who toiled round the clock as volunteers during the 23rd conference of FMRAI, were greeted in a ceremony held on 9 March at Shramik Bhawan, Kolkata. D P Dubey, FMRAIs former general secretary, greeted the participants for their tireless activities that made the conference a historic success. FMRAIs vice president Alok Ganguli dealt the major conclusions of the conference and congratulated them for making all round impressive arrangements. Rabin Deb, working chairman of the reception committee and president of WBMSRU, greeted the members for accepting the challenge of hosting the conference. General secretary of the reception committee and WBMSRUs general secretary Sumahan Chakraborty appreciated the commitment and discipline shown by the volunteers. Arnab Nag, secretary, WBMSRU also spoke on the occasion. Volunteers were given conference memento as a token of appreciation for their rich contribution.

Volunteers of FMRAI Conference Greeted

02.03.2013

FMRAI NEWS

APRIL 2013

Zydus Biochem

COUNCIL NEWS Understanding Signed on Online Reporting

STATE NEWS Unit Annual Meetings & Conferences

UPMSRA
Lucknow : 254 members of UPMSRAs Lucknow unit attended its 31st annual general body meeting on 24 March at Gomtinagar, the place which was renamed after Comrade Laxmi Sehgal on this occassion. Prem Nath Rai, secretary, CITU; S B Indra, district co-ordinator of CITU and leaders of SFI Piyush and Praveen greeted the participants.

Geno Pharmaceuticals

A memorandum of understanding on online reporting system was signed between the management of Zydus Biochem and Co-ordination committee of FMRAI on 25 March at Mumbai. The online reporting system will come into effect after signing the pending charter of demands, the discussion on which is going on at present. It was mutually agreed that the online reporting system will be implemented within the provisions of Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976. Sales Promotion employees will report on Wednesday and Saturday of every week and system will remain open for 30 days for each day report. The format and procedure for online reporting was also mutually decided and in future, any change in the format / procedure, shall be mutually discussed and decided before its implementation. Management will upload sample quantity and other promotional materials in the system with opening and closing balance to be auto-calculated. Management will provide a pen drive for saving the record which shall be treated as document. Management also agreed to help and co-operate the SPEs in case of difficulty in implementing the understanding. Management will impart necessary training to the SPEs before its implementation. SPEs will be reimbursed Rs. 300 per month and in case of any disproportionate price increase, upward revision will be made through mutual consultation. Ajit Deshpande, Ketan Gupte and Prashant Tathe signed the understanding on behalf of the management and, whereas, F. J. Jerome Joy Kumar, Anupam Kumar, T Durgesh, Nilendu Choudhary and Vishal Joshi signed on behalf of Co-ordination Committee. Between Geno Pharmaceuticals and FMRAIs grievance committee, a memorandum of understanding on online reporting system was signed on 23 March. Dilip R. Salgaocar, Dr. Sagar D. Salgaocar and S. K. Dham on behalf of management and Shyamal Mukherjee and S. S. Rao on behalf of the grievance Committee signed the understanding. The online reporting system will come into force from 1 April, 2013. Initially, there will be review meeting in every three months to streamline the system, it was mutually agreed upon. It was mutually agreed that the online reporting system will be implemented within the provisions of Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and will not adversely affect the existing service and working conditions of the sales promotion employees (SPEs). SPEs will send their online report twice in a week. The format and procedure for online reporting was also mutually decided and in future, any change in the format / procedure, shall be implemented after mutual discussion and agreement. SPEs will maintain date-wise diary mentioning names of doctors and chemists and the same shall be considered as legal valid document. Management will provide necessary training to the SPEs and any problem arising out of implementation, shall be mutually discussed and resolved. SPEs will be reimbursed Rs. 400 per month and in case of any disproportionate price increase, upward revision will be made through mutual discussion and agreement.

The meeting was also attended and addressed by CITUs state president R S Bajpai; FMRAIs secretary R P Singh; its Maharashtra state unit MSMRAs secretary M S Ranade; president of UPMSRA R K Srivastava and its general secretary Hemant Singh beside others. After thorough discussion, the reports placed by secretary and treasurer were unanimously adopted. The meeting also unanimously elected 35 member executive committee with Arun Singh as president, Surojeet Mukherjee as secretary and Anwar H Siddiqui as treasurer. Balia: Annual general body meeting of Balia unit of UPMSRA was held on 3 March, participated by 162 members. The meeting was addressed by Ramkrishna Yadav, leader of CPI(M); B N Lal of CITU and Anand Singh, president of chemists & druggists association and others. The meeting unanimously elected the new committee with Devanand as president, Ajit Singh as secretary and Rakesh Mishra as treasurer. Daltonganj : 22 annual meeting of Daltonganj unit of BSSR union was held on 17 March and was attended by 55 members. Co-ordination committee members Rajiv Kumar and Shailender greeted the participants. A colourful motor cycle rally was taken out which covered all important areas of Daltonganj. 10 members participated in the discussion on the reports placed by secretary and president which were adopted unanimously afterwards. Many important decisions were taken in the meeting which include rest house affairs, fund, membership etc. BSSR unions secretary Subrata Biswas addressed the gathering.
nd

BSSRU

Wage Settlement in Wallace

A long term settlement between Wallace Pharmaceuticals and FMRAI was signed on 17 October, 2012 under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. This was the 9th settlement in a row reinforcing 30 years bilateral industrial relationship. The settlement is effective from 1 August, 2010 and shall remain valid till 31 January, 2014. The settlement will derive an average benefit of Rs 1910 per month per field worker as on date of signing with minimum benefit of Rs 1476 and Rs 3233 being the maximum. Due to some typographical error, an amendment to this settlement was further signed on 4 March, 2013. The existing two grades have been upwardly revised making it four, based on service seniority, with addition of Rs 100 at the entry point of the first grade with corresponding rise in rate of increment in all slabs ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 50. Further, Rs 150, Rs 200 and Rs 300 were added in the entry point of the subsequent three grades respectively. The VDA amount payable upto index 3880 has been merged with existing FDA and with effect from 1 August, 2010, field workers will be entitled to Rs 7828 per month as revised FDA. Per point VDA neutralization rate has been revised to Rs 2.50 above index 3880. In place of existing three slabs of additional fixed dearness allowance, fourth slab has been introduced in this settlement with minimum increase of Rs 110 and maximum being Rs 245 per month. Due to upward revision of basic pay, field workers will be benefited as a consequential rise in HRA. The fourth slab has been introduced replacing the existing three slabs in DTA, education, vehicle maintenance and sundry with additional amount in each slab based on service seniority. Head quarter allowance increased to Rs 150 from existing Rs 120; ex-head quarter increased to Rs 165 from Rs 125 and out station allowance increased to Rs 200 from existing Rs 130. The conveyance allowance for the field workers working in Kolkata metro revised to Rs 500 per month. On behalf of the management Rashmi Menezes, director corporate & legal affair; executive director Vinay Pinto; P I Rajendrakumar, VP sales & marketing; Eurico Noronha, VP HR; M Banerjee, NSM and Shruti Mhatre, manager HR and on behalf of FMRAI Sanjay Chatterjee, Saleem K Patel, M S Som, S C Awasthi and P T S Krishna Kumar signed the settlement.

On 16 March, a special meeting was held at Garhwa, a satellite unit of Daltonganj and was attended by 19 field workers. It was decided that efforts will be made to enroll all field workers of Garhwa as member of BSSR union within a months time and unions office will be opened at Garhwa to make it a unit of BSSR union. Gaya: The annual day meeting of Gaya unit, held on 17 March, was attended by 82 members. B C Manis, unit president, hoisted the flag. Abir Adhikari, secretary, BSSRU, greeted the participants. Following discussion by 8 members the reports of units secretary and treasurer, placed by Jaywardhan Kumar and K P Narayan respectively, were unanimously adopted. Agartala:140 members participated in the 9th district conference on 10 March at Sakhicharan Vidyaniketan, Agartala. District president Chandan Bhowmik hoisted the flag and former president of CRU A K Roy inaugurated the conference. CITUs state secretary and vice chairperson of Agartala municipal corporation Samar Chackraborty greeted the conference. After discussion by 21 members, the reports of secretary and treasurer, placed by Ratan Sarkar and Debasish Roy respectably, were unanimously adopted. The conference unanimously elected Chandan bhowmik as president and Ratan Sarkar as secretary. CRUs president P K Roy concluded the conference. Guwahati: On 17 March, 2nd district conference of Guwahati district was held at BTR auditorium of CRUs Guwahati building, inaugurated
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All India Win Medicare council meeting was held at Kolkata on 9 March. The meeting condoled the death of J K Singh, the erstwhile joint zonal convener of north and decided to donate one days wage by each field worker to the bereaved family. Organizational position was assessed and tasks for mobilization were taken for western UP, North West region, Delhi and Karnataka. The meeting decided to complete the renewal of membership by 31 March and, accordingly, dates of council meetings were decided. Field workers grievances were noted for taking up with the management. The 4th settlement of charter of demands, signed recently between the management and the negotiating committee was explained and clarifications raised in the meeting were given. The meeting decided to contribute Rs.3 Lakhs out of the benefits of the settlement to FMRAIs special fund. The conveners of WBMSRU, CRU, OSRU, BSSRU, UPMSRA, JKMSRA, RMSRU, MPMSRU, GSMRA, MSMRA, APMSRU, TNMSRA and KMSRA besides all India, zonal and joint zonal conveners of east and west; zonal convener of south and joint zonal convener of north zone participated the meeting.

AIC meeting of Win Medicare

CRU

APRIL 2013

Registration No. WBENG/2001/6430

FMRAI NEWS

Postal Registration No. KOL RMS/106/2013-2015

417 delegates from all 28 units met in the 34 th general conference of Andhra Pradesh Medical and Sales Representatives Union (APMSRU), held at Karim Nagar during 15-16 March. CITUs all India vice president S.Veeraiah formally inaugurated the conference. In his welcome address, the reception committee chairman, Sri. C. Lakshmi Narsimah Rao, chairman, Chalimeda Ananda Rao Institute of Medical Science, appreciated the contributions of the APMSRU members in the united working class movement and providing better awareness on health related issues among the toiling mass. The conference was greeted by leaders of I.M.A, all India lawyers union, SFI, DYFI, pharmaceutical dealers organization and several other fraternal unions. CITUs AP state general secretary Sudha Bhasker, its secretary A.V.Nageswar Rao, and FMRAI general secretary A. K. Banerjee gave their observations about APMSRUs advancements in both organization and movemental areas and pinpointed the areas to be taken up for future focused movement. On this occasion, a huge

34th General Conference of APMSRU

STATE

NEWS

Central Conference of CRU

colourful rally was taken out covering main thoroughfare of the town and the participants of the rally were greeted, en route, by members of AIEEA, CITU and other fraternal unions. 52 delegates from 27 units discussed on the report placed by the general secretary, made valuable suggestions particularly on the council and related movements, membership and need of educating the functionar ies through trade union classes. The repor t was then adopted unanimously after reply. A special session on agenda of action and annual task document, road map -2013 was dealt by FMRAI general secretary and the programme of the state was placed by

APMSRU general secretary. The conference unanimously adopted resolutions on the pending demands before the Central labour ministr y, on peoples demands on medicines, on demands to the State labour authority, on the movement against Adcock-CFL, on clinical trials, against Pharm Products management, against hike in power tariff and on other issues. The conference elected 17 office bearers with Mukund Kulkar ni as president, A.G.Rajamohan as general secretary and P. S. Sekar Reddy as treasurer and 15 other state working committee members. A presidium consisting Mukund Kulkarni, P. R. K. Reddy and V. Srinivas conducted the conference.

197 delegates including 9 women field workers from all 16 units of CRU, representing the unions 3804 membership of 2011, attended the 21st central conference during 21-23 March at district library, Guwahati. The conference was inaugurated by CITUs Assam state general secretary Deben Bhattacharjee. Dr. Dipul Choudhury, general secretary of all Assam non governmental health establishment associations and chairman of the reception committee welcomed the delegates. Others who addressed the inaugural session include Aloke Kr Banerjee, general secretary, FMRAI and its secretary Sanjay Chatterjee. Others who attended the conference include Anupam Kumar, joint general secretary, BSSRU; Satanjib Das, convener, JCTU of Assam; Bhabesh Deka, general secretary, Assam state employees federation; Bhaben Kalita, secretary, GDIEA; Bipul Deb Sarma, SBISA; P C Sarmah, general secretary, Assam pharmaceutical association; founder President of CRU Dilip Bose and many other leaders of fraternal trade unions. On this occasion, a colourful procession was taken out which

GCM of MSMRA

General council meeting of Maharashtra State Medical & Sales Representatives Associations (MSMRA) was held during 9 10 March at Comrade Laxmi Shegal Nagar, Yavatmal, in Comrade Dipankar Mukherjee Manch, par ticipated by 243 general council members. The gate of the hall was named in memor y of Comrade Sudhir Bedekar. In the mor ning, a colourful rally, participated by the general council members and field workers of nearby units, was taken out from Mahatma Fule Chowk which after passing through the streets of Yavatmal reached to the venue.

In his speech, the chief guest Sandip Bajoria, MLC, Maharashtra Assembly assured that he would take up field workers 8 hours notification demand in the Assembly. Other guests in the meeting were Raman Agarwal, president Amravati Zone of Maharashtra State Chemist & Druggist Association, its vice president, Sanjay Pimpalkhute; Pankaj Nanwani, president Yavatmal Chemist & Druggist association, Sanjay Gorle, Vivek Deshmukh, Panchayat Samiti president and Ashok Thul of joint council of trade unions & association, Nagpur. Thul lamented on Union

governments decision of allowing 100% FDI in pharma, airport and in port & docks which would endanger domestic industry and countrys economic sovereignty. Following placement of general secretary and treasure report by D M Deshpande and Vishal Joshi respectively, the entire general council members, for specific and pinpointed discussion, were divided in eight groups of four commissions- on council and related movements; movements on field workers state related demands; on policy related movement and on organisation. Following deliberations by 42 delegates and reply by general secretary and treasurer, both the reports were then adopted unanimously. FMRAIs joint general secretary K. B. Kadam in his deliberation highlighted the law violations by the pharma companies and various ongoing prosecution cases including of USV limited and justification of FMRAIs demand for suspension of sales promotion activities by these law-violator companies till law compliance. He also urged upon the par ticipants to file

traveled though the main thoroughfare of Guwahati. On the second day of the conference, a cultural programme was organized in the memories of pro-people cultural activists and noted music composers Hemanga Biswas and Dr. Bhupen Hazarika which was inaugurated by Samar Hazarika, an eminent singer and brother of Dr.Bhupen Hazarika. Popular singers of IPTA Bhibvu Ranjan Choudhury and Ghana Deka; members of CRU and their family also performed. In the business session, CRUs general secretary Bijon Das and its treasurer Uttam Majumdar placed their reports which were unanimously adopted after discussion by 38 delegates. The Conference unanimously adopted resolutions against price rise, on movement against Adcock-CFL , against atrocities on women, on developmental issues of north eastern states, against attack on right to work for the field workers, for declaration of minimum wages for the field workers by the state governments of all north eastern states and to achieve 5000 membership of CRU in 2013. FMRAIs general secretary Aloke Kr Banerjee, in his concluding speech highlighted the importance of council movement and proper functioning of OSG platform. He emphasized upon the sub unit level functioning to face the challenges posed on the field workers movement and to carry forward various programmes charted out in the Road Map of 2013. He also urged upon the delegates to achieve the membership objective taken in the conference. The conference unanimously elected 15 secretariat and 24 executive committee members with Pradip Kr Roy as president, Bijan Das as general secretary, and Amitava Das as treasurer. The conference also elected 127 general council members. A presidium consisting Pradip Kr Roy, Prashanta Barpujari, N Dilip Singh and Manjul Chakraborty conducted the proceedings of the conference.

Corrigendum
In the March, 2013 issue of FMRAI News, the photo caption (page-4) should be read as Dr. S. K. Chatterjee in place of Dr. J. Chatterjee. The error is regretted. ... Editor complaints against Adcock management for flagrant violation of law in all districts of Maharashtra. FMRAIs general secretary A. K. Benarjee, while greeting the fighting members of MSMRA, dealt the policies and movemental tactics of FMRAI. During his deliberation, he also cautioned the members and urged to remain vigilant and alert on the newer forms of attack on field workers identity and jobs and urged upon to put economic and legal embargo on Adcock for utter disregard towards the laws of the land.

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 Satyajug Employees 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