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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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The International Women’s Day on 8 March was observed by thewomen field workers and members of FMRAI throughout the country,independently and jointly with other women organisations, by way ofrallies, procession, conventions, hall meetings etc. dealing the issuesof job security and equal wages; for protection of legal rights; againstatrocities on women; for social security and safety; against genderinequality, discrimination and harassment particularly in work placesand demanding proper reservation for women.

Salem unit of TNMSRA organized a meeting, addressed by AIDWAleaders Vairamani and Raheema Biwi; CITU leader K C Gopikumarand others. In Kolkata, WBMSRU’s women field workers participatedin the central rally, organized by four women’s organizations, whichstarted from Ramlila Maidan, Moulali and culminated into a massmeeting at the Metro Channel, Esplanade where eminent leaders ofwomen’s movement Shyamali Gupta, Banani Biswas and Minati Ghoshgreeted. Earlier, on 16 February, a convention was organized by thisforum at CITU’s West Bengal state committee’s 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 attendedby the members of BSSRU. The women subcommittee of KMSRAThrissur organized a meeting at union’s office premises. Womenactivists and leaders of KMSRA Sindhu A S; Mary Anila Paul; VidyaRajan; Mini Suresh and Susmitha addressed the meeting. It wasfollowed by a rally which started from union’s office and reached ThrissurSwaraj Round to join the central rally organized by All India DemocraticWomen’s Association (AIDWA). Jabalpur unit of MPMSRU organizeda convention which was addressed by Anjana Dixit, vice president,MPMSRU; Anjana kurariya and Shaila Shukla of Akhil Bharitya JanwadiMahila Samiti. Women field workers of Varanasi, Kanpur and Lucknowunits of UPMSRA and Cuttack unit of OSRU also celebrated the day.

At Thrissur

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Two Predicaments� 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 )

� “The 55 wonder-wallets give India fifth rank in the worldbillionaires on the Forbes list”. The four countries ahead ofIndia are U.S., China, Russia and Germany

� India ranks 136 out of 186 nations in the 2013 UnitedNations Human Development Index

� The top 10 are worth $102.2 billion, a bit more than country’sfiscal deficit of $96 billion

� “Since 2005- 06, taxes and duties for the corporate worldand the rich have been written off at the rate of Rs. 7 milliona minute on average. Duties waived on gold and diamonds inthe last 36 months equal the 2G scam amount”

� Per capita net availability of food grain per day which was474.9 grams during 1992- 96 came down to 444.6 grams in2007-11

� In the Global Hunger Index of 2012, India ranks 65 among79 hungriest nations, eight slots below Rwanda and worsethan its position in 1996

(From an article by P Sainath, The Hindu, 16 March, 2013)

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Immediately after FMRAI’sKolkata conference andchallenging the unanimouslyadopted resolution of theconference, Cosme Farmadismissed all sales promotionemployees en masse, who didnot resign from Cosme Farmaand refused to accept thecontract job, offered by Adcock.FMRAI raised industrial disputeagainst these dismissals with thelabour commissioner in Goa andalso challenged the same in theindustrial tr ibunal where twodisputes are already pending –on common charter of demandsand against 42 victimisations.

FMRAI’s conferenceresolution demanded job transferfrom Cosme Farma to AdcockIngram without changing theirconditions of service and legally

By separate letters to the Union Labour, Finance and Commerce ministers on 20 March, CITU’sgeneral secretary Tapan Sen, MP has drawn their attention on the unlawful termination and unilateralchange in service conditions of the sales promotion employees of Cosme Farma Laboratories followingits acquisition by Adcock Ingram Healthcare Private Limited. Cosme Farma resorted to massdismissals of the sales promotion employees; and the foreign company Adcock unilaterally changedservice conditions of the sales promotion employees during pendency of their disputes in industrialtribunal in gross violation of the laws of the land. Foreign-take-over of Indian pharmaceutical companyled to jobloss of large number of employees, Tapan Sen wrote.

valid appointment letter in Form-A of the SPE Act.

FMRAI’s several state anddistrict units filed complaints withthe state labour commissionersand state drug controllersdemanding prosecution andimmediate suspension of salespromotion of Cosme-Adcockproducts by illegal persons underdrugs and labour laws.

Notices to Adcock Ingramwere sent by the governments ofAndhra Pradesh, Karnataka andWest Bengal in March, 2013 forviolations of various provisions ofIndustrial Disputes Act, 1947,Sales Promotion Employees(Conditions of Service) Act, 1976and Drugs & Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisement)Act, 1954 directing themanagement to attend meetings.

Kerala government calledmeeting on 15 April.

Odisha, North East region,Bihar-Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan, Punjab-Chandigarh,Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarhand Tamilnadu state unitssubmitted memoranda torespective state labourdepartments and drug controlauthorities; and in more than 140districts the demands have beenraised for suspension of salespromotion activities throughunauthorized persons of Adcockmanagement.

At several places, based oncomplaints to labour and drugcontrol authorities, FIRs / generaldiaries are being registered withlocal police. Kerala state unitKMSRA met police

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��������'��(���'����)�&������$�Protesting against unfair

labour practices resorted to by themanagement by way of transfers,issuing stop work notices, takingpunitive actions in violation of rulesof natural justice including, issuingillegal show cause /charge sheetson the basis of sales including theconvener of Maharashtra,declaring partial territorial lockouts,non - payment of wage andexpenses and arbitrary deductionsand on other issues; 87 Svizerafield workers of Maharashtraresorted to a lightning strike on 19March.

The striking field workersstaged a day long dharna in frontof the head office of the companyat Govandi, Mumbai on that day,joined by other MSMRA members.A gate meeting was held therewhich was addressed by MSMRAleader M. S. Ranade and others.Management tried to disrupt thestrike by coercing the field workersand misleading the administrationbut failed on both counts.

In a subsequent development,management issued show causenotices to individual striking fieldworkers for resorting to collectiveaction to which MSMRA wouldtake up the matter withmanagement and legal authoritiesappropriately.

The all India Svizera councilmeeting, held on 11 March atNagpur assessed that despiteconciliatory approach by FMRAI’scommittee, the existing bilateralrelationship got strained due toadamant attitude of themanagement which has forced the

Svizera field workers to resort toagitation. The meeting alsodecided to resort to a day’scountry-wide strike on 23 April inpursuance of settlement of charterof demands pending since July,2011, against large scalevictimizations including all Indiaconvener and other leadingfunctionaries by way of illegalterminations, transfers,suspension, wage cuts,headquarter confinement declaringpartial lockouts, stop work, nonpayment of benevolent fundsviolating settlement provision etc.

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�������� ���������� APRIL 2013 �

An order of the Revenue Divisional Commissioners (RDC) ofthe Central and Southern divisions of Odisha debarred the entryof “Medical Representatives” into the medical college and hospitalcampus and, thereby put an embargo on their right to work inCapital Hospital, Bhubaneswar; SCB Medical College andHospital, Cuttack and MKCG Medical College and Hospital,Berhampur. The order mentioned that frequent entries of themedical representatives are ‘affecting the service delivery of theinstitution’ as reason for imposing such embargo. The agitatedfield workers resorted to protest actions, staged demonstrationsbefore RDC offices at Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar, delegationsmet state labour commissioner and health minister. Surprisingly,the minister informed that the order was issued without hisknowledge and Government of Odisha was unaware of it.

Following the resolution on newer forms of attack, adopted in23rd conference of FMRAI at Kolkata, this development of Odishawas the first revelation that vindicates the essence of theresolution about the danger on the profession and right to workof the field workers.

But where the RDC order went wrong? Is it only due to posingthreat of the job security of thousands of medical representativesof Odisha? The order of the RDC was an arbitrary decision andchallenged the provisions of Sales Promotion Employees(Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and Drugs & Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 and a deep rootedconspiracy of multinational corporations.

Section 15 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (ObjectionableAdvertisements) Act, 1954 and Government of India’s subsequentGSR No. 843 dated 29.5.1967 has two parts. It says that onlymedical detailers, as appointed by manufacturers and othershaving drug licenses, are authorized for sales promotion andalready in the legally identified areas reading as, “confined onlyto the registered medical practitioners, hospitals,dispensaries, medical and research institutions, andChemists and Druggists or pharmacies duly licensed underthe provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules.” (underlineadded for emphasis)

Medical detailers are ‘Sales Promotion Employees’ ofpharmaceutical industry, as identified by the Constitutional Benchof Supreme Court in H. R. Adyanthaya case in 1994. They areworkers with their full right to work like other workers and haveclearly defined their areas of work as mentioned above.

Therefore, the said order of the RDC, banning the entry ofmedical representatives in government hospitals, was in violationsof right to work in legally identified areas for the sales promotionemployees of pharmaceutical industry.

The vested interest are behind the curtain. Huge bribery andfunding by the foreign drug corporates, in connivance withgovernment administrators and their political bosses, are involvedto grab the robust Indian pharma market and to prepare a groundfor a patent regime for drugs and pharmaceuticals in India. It hassurfaced that a Kerala based retail chemist chain would open itsshops inside the premises of all medical college hospitals inOdisha to sell so called generic medicines and one such hasalready been inaugurated by the health minister himself who,during his assembly speech, advised the doctors to prescribemedicines only in their generic names.

The vested interest of patent holders is further revealed inthe 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 crackdown on fake/counterfeit medicines. In the past, genuine genericdrugs from India have been seized on allegations of beingcounterfeit”.

It is in this background, 23rd conference of FMRAI, held atKolkata between 4 to 7 February, adopted resolution against“Newer Forms of Attack”. The resolution identified the new attackstogether on the medical representatives and the medicalpractitioners. The legal identity and legal right to work of the salespromotion employees need to be protected as top priority throughlegal appointment letters and legal identity card and their work inhospitals and institutions and with the registered medicalpractitioners without any ban or restriction. Field workers will neversurrender and will continue to oppose in protection of profession,job and right to work.

Oppose attack on profession,job and right to work

02.03.2013

commissioners in 5 major citiesand police supers in 12 districtson this issue.

Management of Adcock failedto attend tripartite meeting even inits head office city Bangalore on15 and 18 March, but finallyattended meeting on 22 March.Karnataka deputy labourcommissioner directed themanagement to produce thedocuments concerning the saledeed between the two companiesand agreement on job transfers ofthe field workers and employmentletters offered by Adcock in thenext meeting on 2 April.

In Kolkata meeting, themanagement’s representativesigned the minute of the jointmeeting held on 15 Marchassuring to convey the issues tothe head office management.Next meeting is posted on 12April. In Andhra Pradesh, Adcockmanagement did not attendmeeting on 12 March, which wascalled by the joint commissionerof labour at Hyderabad incontinuation of earlier meetings.Meanwhile, on the submission ofAPMSRU about mass dismissalsof 17 field workers in the state,joint commissioner of labourdirected P. R Hegde, managingdirector of Cosme Farma “toshow cause as to why he shouldnot be prosecuted for violation ofSection 25FF read with Section25F of Industrial Disputes Act-1947 within 7 days”.

Notices have been issued byChhattisgarh labour commissionerand district labour authorities ofSatna in Madhya Pradesh; byTrichy labour department and jointmeeting is called at Madurai on 3April. As per the advice of assistantlabour commissioner in themeeting on 19 March, Burdwanunit of WBMSRU provided thename, e-mail ID and phonenumbers of concern Adcockmanagers for calling tripartitemeeting on 2 April.

In the meantime, Adcockmanagers are facingdemonstrations of FMRAImembers in the field. Company’sbusiness in January, Februaryand March remained ‘very muted’as admitted by the management.

As some direct feelers are beingexchanged, FMRAI suspended alldirect agitational programmesagainst Adcock till 15 April.

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

From page-3 Guwahati

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On 17 March, Prashant Kumar, deputy commissioner of Dhanbad,felicitated the members of BSSRU’s Dhanbad unit along with ten otherorganizations for their regular involvement in various social welfareactivities which include blood donation. The programme was held atthe Indian Red Cross Society building which was attended by districtdevelopment commissioner Ratan Kr Gupta; Dr. A K Singh, president,IMA Jharkhand state committee and Dr. Allauddin, joint secretary ofRed Cross Society of Dhanbad beside others. FMRAI’s workingcommittee member Asim Halder and Dhanbad unit’s president KundanMukherjee received the memento on behalf of the union.

OSRU members of Cuttackand Berhampur staged massdemonstrations and submittedmemoranda to the respectiveoffices of the Revenue DivisionalCommissioner (RDC), Odisha on15 and 17 February, protestingagainst orders of its southern andcentral divisions, putting embargoon the entry of medicalrepresentatives into the medicalcollege and hospital campus. Theorder of the RDC was against theexisting labour and drug laws

which were challenged by OSRU.(see Editorial )

A delegation led by CITU’svice president Janardan Pati,FMRAI’s treasurer Parta Rakshitand OSRU’s general secretarySubhankar Das met healthminister on 6 March. Surprisingly,the health minister informed thedelegation that he was unawareof the said order issued by theRDCs. Earlier, on 21 February, a

delegation led by OSRU presidentBijoy Das and its secretary P KSamal met the labourcommissioner, government ofOdisha on the said issue atBhubaneshwar.

Further, joint secretary to thegovernment Anand Chandra Sial,IAS, issued a memo on 19.3.2013to the additional secretary togovernment, health & familywelfare department requestinghim to look into the matter and totake appropriate action andmarked a copy of the same to thegeneral secretary, OSRU.

����������������� !������������"�����More than 300 members of WBMSRU, who toiled round the clock as

volunteers during the 23rd conference of FMRAI, were greeted in aceremony held on 9 March at Shramik Bhawan, Kolkata. D P Dubey,FMRAI’s former general secretary, greeted the participants for theirtireless activities that made the conference a historic success. FMRAI’svice president Alok Ganguli dealt the major conclusions of the conferenceand congratulated them for making all round impressive arrangements.Rabin Deb, working chairman of the reception committee and presidentof WBMSRU, greeted the members for accepting the challenge of hostingthe conference. General secretary of the reception committee andWBMSRU’s general secretary Sumahan Chakraborty appreciated thecommitment and discipline shown by the volunteers. Arnab Nag,secretary, WBMSRU also spoke on the occasion. Volunteers were givenconference memento as a token of appreciation for their rich contribution.

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A long term settlement betweenWallace Pharmaceuticals andFMRAI was signed on 17 October,2012 under the provisions ofIndustrial Disputes Act, 1947. Thiswas the 9th settlement in a rowreinforcing 30 years bilateralindustrial relationship. Thesettlement is effective from 1August, 2010 and shall remain validtill 31 January, 2014. The settlementwill derive an average benefit of Rs1910 per month per field worker ason date of signing with minimumbenefit of Rs 1476 and Rs 3233being the maximum.

Due to some typographicalerror, an amendment to thissettlement was further signed on 4March, 2013.

The existing two grades havebeen upwardly revised making itfour, based on service seniority,with addition of Rs 100 at the entrypoint of the first grade with

corresponding rise in rate ofincrement in all slabs ranging fromRs 10 to Rs 50. Further, Rs 150,Rs 200 and Rs 300 were added inthe entry point of the subsequentthree grades respectively. The VDAamount payable upto index 3880has been merged with existing FDAand with effect from 1 August, 2010,field workers will be entitled to Rs7828 per month as revised FDA.Per point VDA neutralization ratehas been revised to Rs 2.50 aboveindex 3880. In place of existingthree slabs of additional fixeddearness allowance, fourth slabhas been introduced in thissettlement with minimum increaseof Rs 110 and maximum being Rs245 per month.

Due to upward revision of basicpay, field workers will be benefitedas a consequential rise in HRA. Thefourth slab has been introducedreplacing the existing three slabs

in DTA, education, vehiclemaintenance and sundry withadditional amount in each slabbased on service seniority.

Head quarter allowanceincreased to Rs 150 from existingRs 120; ex-head quarter increasedto Rs 165 from Rs 125 and outstation allowance increased to Rs200 from existing Rs 130. Theconveyance allowance for the fieldworkers working in Kolkata metrorevised to Rs 500 per month.

On behalf of the managementRashmi Menezes, director –corporate & legal affair; executivedirector Vinay Pinto; P IRajendrakumar, VP – sales &marketing; Eurico Noronha, VP –HR; M Banerjee, NSM and ShrutiMhatre, manager – HR and onbehalf of FMRAI Sanjay Chatterjee,Saleem K Patel, M S Som, S CAwasthi and P T S Krishna Kumarsigned the settlement.

!��������(����&���������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 day’s wage byeach field worker to the bereaved family. Organizational position was assessed and tasks for mobilizationwere taken for western UP, North West region, Delhi and Karnataka. The meeting decided to complete therenewal 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 negotiatingcommittee was explained and clarifications raised in the meeting were given. The meeting decided tocontribute Rs.3 Lakhs out of the benefits of the settlement to FMRAI’s 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 andwest; zonal convener of south and joint zonal convener of north zone participated the meeting.

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,�&'��-��#��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 systemwill come into effect after signing the pending charter of demands, the discussion on which is going on atpresent.

It was mutually agreed that the online reporting system will be implemented within the provisions of SalesPromotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976. Sales Promotion employees will report on Wednesdayand Saturday of every week and system will remain open for 30 days for each day report. The format andprocedure 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 quantityand 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. Managementalso 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 reimbursedRs. 300 per month and in case of any disproportionate price increase, upward revision will be made throughmutual consultation.

Ajit Deshpande, Ketan Gupte and Prashant Tathe signed the understanding on behalf of the managementand, whereas, F. J. Jerome Joy Kumar, Anupam Kumar, T Durgesh, Nilendu Choudhary and Vishal Joshisigned on behalf of Co-ordination Committee.

�����#������'�����Between Geno Pharmaceuticals and FMRAI’s 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 Committeesigned the understanding. The online reporting system will come into force from 1 April, 2013. Initially, therewill 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 ofSales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and will not adversely affect the existingservice and working conditions of the sales promotion employees (SPEs). SPEs will send their onlinereport twice in a week.

The format and procedure for online reporting was also mutually decided and in future, any change inthe format / procedure, shall be implemented after mutual discussion and agreement. SPEs will maintaindate-wise diary mentioning names of doctors and chemists and the same shall be considered as legal validdocument.

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 anydisproportionate price increase, upward revision will be made through mutual discussion and agreement.

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On 16 March, a special meeting was held at Garhwa, a satelliteunit of Daltonganj and was attended by 19 field workers. It was decidedthat efforts will be made to enroll all field workers of Garhwa as memberof BSSR union within a month’s time and union’s office will be openedat 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 theflag. Abir Adhikari, secretary, BSSRU, greeted the participants.Following discussion by 8 members the reports of unit’s secretary andtreasurer, 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 presidentChandan Bhowmik hoisted the flag and former president of CRU A KRoy inaugurated the conference. CITU’s state secretary and vicechairperson of Agartala municipal corporation Samar Chackrabortygreeted the conference. After discussion by 21 members, the reportsof secretary and treasurer, placed by Ratan Sarkar and Debasish Royrespectably, were unanimously adopted. The conference unanimouslyelected Chandan bhowmik as president and Ratan Sarkar as secretary.CRU’s president P K Roy concluded the conference.

Guwahati: On 17 March, 2nd district conference of Guwahati districtwas held at BTR auditorium of CRU’s Guwahati building, inaugurated

The meeting was also attended and addressed by CITU’s statepresident R S Bajpai; FMRAI’s secretary R P Singh; its Maharashtrastate unit MSMRA’s secretary M S Ranade; president of UPMSRA R KSrivastava and its general secretary Hemant Singh beside others. Afterthorough discussion, the reports placed by secretary and treasurerwere unanimously adopted. The meeting also unanimously elected 35member executive committee with Arun Singh as president, SurojeetMukherjee as secretary and Anwar H Siddiqui as treasurer.

Balia: Annual general body meeting of Balia unit of UPMSRA washeld on 3 March, participated by 162 members. The meeting wasaddressed by Ramkrishna Yadav, leader of CPI(M); B N Lal of CITU andAnand Singh, president of chemists & druggists association and others.The meeting unanimously elected the new committee with Devanandas president, Ajit Singh as secretary and Rakesh Mishra as treasurer.

�����Daltonganj : 22nd annual meeting of Daltonganj unit of BSSR union

was held on 17 March and was attended by 55 members. Co-ordinationcommittee members Rajiv Kumar and Shailender greeted theparticipants. A colourful motor cycle rally was taken out which coveredall important areas of Daltonganj. 10 members participated in thediscussion on the reports placed by secretary and president whichwere adopted unanimously afterwards. Many important decisions weretaken in the meeting which include rest house affairs, fund, membershipetc. BSSR union’s secretary Subrata Biswas addressed the gathering.

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Lucknow : 254 members of UPMSRA’s Lucknow unit attended its31st annual general body meeting on 24 March at Gomtinagar, the placewhich was renamed after Comrade Laxmi Sehgal on this occassion.Prem Nath Rai, secretary, CITU; S B Indra, district co-ordinator of CITUand leaders of SFI Piyush and Praveen greeted the participants.

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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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417 delegates from all 28units met in the 34th generalconference of Andhra PradeshMedical and SalesRepresentatives’ Union(APMSRU), held at Karim Nagarduring 15-16 March.

CITU’s all India vice presidentS.Veeraiah formally inauguratedthe conference. In his welcomeaddress, the reception committeechairman, Sri. C. LakshmiNarsimah Rao, chairman,Chalimeda Ananda Rao Instituteof Medical Science, appreciatedthe contributions of the APMSRUmembers in the united workingclass movement and providingbetter awareness on healthrelated issues among the toilingmass. The conference wasgreeted by leaders of I.M.A, allIndia lawyers union, SFI, DYFI,pharmaceutical dealers’organization and several otherfraternal unions. CITU’s AP stategeneral secretary SudhaBhasker, its secretaryA.V.Nageswar Rao, and FMRAIgeneral secretary A. K. Banerjeegave their observations aboutAPMSRU’s advancements in bothorganization and movementalareas and pinpointed the areas tobe taken up for future focusedmovement.

On this occasion, a huge

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colourful rally was taken outcovering main thoroughfare ofthe town and the participants ofthe rally were greeted, en route,by members of AIEEA, CITU andother fraternal unions.

52 delegates from 27 unitsdiscussed on the report placedby the general secretary, madevaluable suggestionsparticularly on the council andrelated movements,membership and need ofeducating the functionar iesthrough trade union classes. Therepor t was then adoptedunanimously after reply.

A special session on agendaof action and annual taskdocument, road map -2013 wasdealt by FMRAI generalsecretary and the programme ofthe state was placed by

APMSRU general secretary.The conference unanimously

adopted resolutions on thepending demands before theCentral labour ministry, onpeoples’ demands on medicines,on demands to the State labourauthor ity, on the movementagainst Adcock-CFL, on clinicaltrials, against Pharm Productsmanagement, against hike inpower tariff and on other issues.

The conference elected 17office bearers with MukundKulkarni as president,A.G.Rajamohan as generalsecretary and P. S. Sekar Reddyas treasurer and 15 other stateworking committee members.

A presidium consistingMukund Kulkarni, P. R. K. Reddyand V. Srinivas conducted theconference.

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������197 delegates including 9 women field workers from all 16 units of

CRU, representing the union’s 3804 membership of 2011, attendedthe 21st central conference during 21-23 March at district library,Guwahati. The conference was inaugurated by CITU’s Assam stategeneral secretary Deben Bhattacharjee. Dr. Dipul Choudhury, generalsecretary of all Assam non governmental health establishmentassociations and chairman of the reception committee welcomed thedelegates. Others who addressed the inaugural session include AlokeKr Banerjee, general secretary, FMRAI and its secretary SanjayChatterjee. Others who attended the conference include AnupamKumar, joint general secretary, BSSRU; Satanjib Das, convener, JCTUof Assam; Bhabesh Deka, general secretary, Assam state employeesfederation; 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 fraternaltrade unions.

On this occasion, a colourful procession was taken out which

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 notedmusic composers Hemanga Biswas and Dr. Bhupen Hazarika whichwas inaugurated by Samar Hazarika, an eminent singer and brother ofDr.Bhupen Hazarika. Popular singers of IPTA Bhibvu Ranjan Choudhuryand Ghana Deka; members of CRU and their family also performed.

In the business session, CRU’s general secretary Bijon Das andits treasurer Uttam Majumdar placed their reports which wereunanimously adopted after discussion by 38 delegates. The Conferenceunanimously adopted resolutions against price rise, on movementagainst Adcock-CFL , against atrocities on women, on developmentalissues of north eastern states, against attack on right to work for thefield workers, for declaration of minimum wages for the field workersby the state governments of all north eastern states and to achieve5000 membership of CRU in 2013.

FMRAI’s general secretary Aloke Kr Banerjee, in his concludingspeech highlighted the importance of council movement and properfunctioning of OSG platform. He emphasized upon the sub unit levelfunctioning to face the challenges posed on the field workers movementand to carry forward various programmes charted out in the Road Mapof 2013. He also urged upon the delegates to achieve the membershipobjective taken in the conference.

The conference unanimously elected 15 secretariat and 24executive committee members with Pradip Kr Roy as president, BijanDas as general secretary, and Amitava Das as treasurer. Theconference also elected 127 general council members.

A presidium consisting Pradip Kr Roy, Prashanta Barpujari, N Dilip Singhand Manjul Chakraborty conducted the proceedings of the conference.

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General council meeting ofMaharashtra State Medical &Sales Representatives’Associations (MSMRA) was heldduring 9 – 10 March at ComradeLaxmi Shegal Nagar, Yavatmal,in Comrade Dipankar MukherjeeManch, par ticipated by 243general council members. Thegate of the hall was named inmemory of Comrade SudhirBedekar. In the morning, acolourful rally, participated by thegeneral council members andfield workers of nearby units, wastaken out from Mahatma FuleChowk which after passing through the streets of Yavatmalreached to the venue.

In his speech, the chief guestSandip Bajor ia, MLC,Maharashtra Assembly assuredthat he would take up fieldworkers’ 8 hours notificationdemand in the Assembly. Otherguests in the meeting wereRaman Agarwal, presidentAmravati Zone of MaharashtraState Chemist & DruggistAssociation, its vice president,Sanjay Pimpalkhute; PankajNanwani, president YavatmalChemist & Druggist association,Sanjay Gorle, Vivek Deshmukh,Panchayat Samiti president andAshok Thul of joint council oftrade unions & association,Nagpur. Thul lamented on Union

government’s decision ofallowing 100% FDI in pharma,airport and in port & docks whichwould endanger domesticindustry and country’s economicsovereignty.

Following placement ofgeneral secretary and treasurereport by D M Deshpande andVishal Joshi respectively, theentire general council members,for specific and pinpointeddiscussion, were divided in eightgroups of four commissions- oncouncil and related movements;movements on field workers’state related demands; on policyrelated movement and onorganisation. Followingdeliberations by 42 delegatesand reply by general secretaryand treasurer, both the reportswere then adopted unanimously.

FMRAI’s joint generalsecretary K. B. Kadam in hisdeliberation highlighted the lawviolations by the pharmacompanies and various ongoingprosecution cases including ofUSV limited and justification ofFMRAI’s demand for suspensionof sales promotion activities bythese law-violator companies tilllaw compliance. He also urgedupon the par ticipants to file

complaints against Adcockmanagement for flagrantviolation of law in all districts ofMaharashtra.

FMRAI’s general secretary A.K. Benarjee, while greeting thefighting members of MSMRA,dealt the policies andmovemental tactics of FMRAI.

During his deliberation, he alsocautioned the members andurged to remain vigilant and alerton the newer forms of attack onfield workers identity and jobsand urged upon to put economicand legal embargo on Adcock forutter disregard towards the lawsof the land.

CorrigendumIn 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