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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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�� ���� ��23rd Conference of FMRAI is

going to be held at MahajatiSadan, Kolkata from 4 to 7February, 2013, with participationof 1000 delegates, permissiblemaximum number under itsConstitution, based on recordvalid 72,705 membership in 2011,coming from 19 state units of thecountry. 23rd Conference iscoincided with FMRAI’s goldenjubilee year, since its formation in1963 and Golden Jubileecelebration will becommemorated together in abefitting manner.

The conference will beinaugurated in an open sessionby Sitaram Yechury, MP and PolitBureau member of CPI(M). Theopen session will also beaddressed by the chairman of thereception committee Dr. SuryaKanta Mishra, Leader of theOpposition in West Bengal StateAssembly, a medical practitionerby profession; leaders offrateranal unions and other massorganizations, chemists’ anddruggists association and FMRAIleaders. A colourful processionwill be taken out after the opensession which, besidesdelegates, will be joined by largenumber of WBMSRU and otherstate unit members from eastzone culminating into a massmeeting in Rani Rashmoni Road,Esplanade.

The business session will beinaugurated by former generalsecretary of FMRAI, J. S.Majumdar on 5 February.Following deliberations by thedelegates on the reports ofgeneral secretary and treasurer,adoption of resolutions on futuremovements and organization,Agenda of Action and election ofnew Working Committee, theConference shall come to closeon 7 February afternoon.

Instead of transferring jobs ofsales promotion employees asrequired under I D Act and inviolation of the provisions of I DAct and SPE Act; South AfricanMNC Adcock Ingram, followingForeign Investment PromotionBoard approving its 100%acquisition of Cosme FarmaLaboratories Ltd, resorted toextraction of letters of resignationfrom Cosme Farma salespromotion employees of allcategories and of all divisionsusing force and offering ‘contractservice’ as ‘managers’ during 7-9January ‘sales meetings’. At thecall of FMRAI, majority CosmeFarma field workers resorted tolightening strike, boycotted salesmeetings and refused to submitresignation letters. Some fieldworkers were confused and underpressure submitted.

Against this forcedresignations and violation of laws,OSG network (Councilsubcommittees) reacted sharply,staged demonstrations andsubmitted memoranda to statelabour commissioners and drug

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Advertisement of drugs and pharmaceuticalsby unauthorized persons and/or to unauthorizedpersons/institutions is illegal under Section 15 ofthe Drugs and Magic Remedies (ObjectionableAdvertisements) Act, 1954. The Section 15 has twoparts – one part states as to who are authorized todo advertisements or sales promotion and thesecond part deals with the persons/institutions towhom it can be done.

On the first part Section 15 states, “MedicalLiteratures distributed by medical detailersappointed by manufacturers, importers ordistributors of drugs, duly licensed under Drugsand Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 0f 1940) and theRules thereunder.”

As per judgement of Supreme CourtConstitution Bench in H.R.Adhanthaya case in1994, all are sales promotion employees, who areengaged in sales promotion of pharmaceuticalproducts. “Medical detailers appointed bymanufacturers, importers or distributors ofdrugs, duly licensed under Drugs and CosmeticsAct, 1940 (23 0f 1940) and the Rules thereunder”,as mentioned above, cannot be anybody else otherthan the sales promotion employees as per theabove Supreme Court judgement.

And who are these ‘sales promotionemployees’? How they are to be identified? Thosewho have been appointed by manufacturers,

Suspension of Sales Promotion Justifiedimporters or distributors of drugs, duly licensedunder Drugs and Cosmetics Act etc” in appointmentletters in Form-A under section 5 of SPE Act.Pharmaceutical sales promotion by any otherperson is illegal as per above provision of law andis a punishable offence. Enforcement of theseprovisions of these two drug Acts are theresponsibility of the state drug controllers.

On second part Section 15 restricts such salespromotion by the legally appointed sales promotionemployees only by way of “The distribution of suchliterature is confined only to the registered medicalpractitioners, hospitals, dispensaries, medical andresearch institutions, and Chemists and Druggistsor pharmacies duly licensed under the provisionsof Drugs and Cosmetics Rules.” Enforcement of thisprovision also is the responsibility of state drugcontrollers.

On enforcement of these legal provisions theGovernment of India issued gazette notification asGSR No. 843 dated 29.5.1967 for enforcement onand from 29 May, 1967.

On these grounds FMRAI is justified indemanding suspension of sales promotion activitiesor marketing by Adcock Ingram Healthcare PrivateLimited and some other companies and intend tofile FIRs at local police stations against personsdoing any sales promotion work for Adcock in thebackground reported in this issue of FMRAI News.

Protesting against unilateraland arbitrary introductions ofnewer reporting formats throughfrequent changes in the onlinereporting system and using it asa tool to victimize the fieldworkers; against illegal andunethical trading and marketing;demanding appointment letters inForm A of SPE Act; constitutionof grievance committee andrationalization of service andworking conditions throughbilateral discussion and resolutionof one termination and onetransfer issue, more than 1200field workers of Torrent across thecountry, as per initial report, tookmass casual leave and staged daylong dharnas in front of company’sestablishments on 22 January atKolkata, Ranchi, Patna, Cuttack,Guwahati, Lucknow, Dehradun,Jaipur, Bhopal, Indore, Mumbai,Hyderabad, Chennai and Cochin.Torrent field workers of Karnatakatook casual leave and submittedmemorandum.

Despite management’sprovocation, threat andallurement, field work on that daywas completely ceased in Torrent.Members from councils andgeneral unity attended the

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programme en masse to expresstheir solidarity with the strugglingTorrent field workers.

In West Bengal, the fieldworkers sat in dharna in front ofthe company’s regional office atKolkata and gate meeting washeld which was addressed byFMRAI’s joint general secretary AK Banerjee, Torrent’s all Indiaconvener Nishit Chatterjee, itszonal convener Arpita Mitra Royand other council leaders. Adelegation met the localmanagement and submittedmemorandum. Bihar-Jharkhandfield workers sat in dharna in frontof company’s establishments at

Patna and Ranchi. The massivegathering at Patna wasaddressed by BSSRU’s generalsecretary Dipak Bhattacharya.The field workers of North-Eastsat in dharna, CRU’s generalsecretary Bijon Das addressedthe gathering at Guwahati.Dharna of Odisha field workers atCuttack was addressed byOSRU’s general secretarySubhankar Das. In Uttar Pradesh,dharnas were held at Lucknow,Kanpur, Moradabad, Allahabadand Varanasi. Braving severecold wave in Rajasthan, dharnain Jaipur was a huge success. InMaharashtra, field workers

assembled in front of company’sestablishment at Mumbai and amemorandum was submitted.Dharna could not be organizeddue to denial of permission byadministration. In MadhyaPradesh-Chhattisgarh, dharnaswere held at Indore andJabalpur. Massive dharnas wereheld in Hyderabad and Cochin.In Tamilnadu, permission fordharna was denied and fieldworkers assembled beforecompany’s establishment atChennai and submitted amemorandum. Karnataka fieldworkers also submittedmemorandum.

Hyderabad Jaipur

See page-2

See page-2

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��������� ���������� FEBRUARY 2013 �

After 25 years of hosting its silver jubilee year conferencein 1988, Kolkata once again is readying to host FMRAI’s golden

jubilee year conference, its 23rd, from 4 to 7 February, 2013.This 25 year has seen countrywide unification of field workers reflected

in substantial increase in membership; spread of organizational network atmicro level, in new areas, industries and in companies through councils; inorganizational consolidation to match new challenges; in mobilization andstriking capacities; increased participation in democratic movement;building up movement in new forms and tactics; and with many successesand achievements.

Developments since its last, 22nd, conference at Chennai in 2010, will becritically examined by this conference drawing lessons from the past – thedevelopments in socio-economic situation in international and nationalarena; its impact on the service and working conditions of the field workers;their movement particularly in defending and advancing trade union andcollective bargaining rights; movement for legal rights; movement for 8hours work, minimum wages, photo I cards, field workers’ movement onthe drug issues particularly its pricing and availability, on issues of womenfield workers, the organizational matter etc. The conference will also decideits future course after scrutinizing the experiences gained while translatingin action the tasks decided in road maps of 2010, 2011 and 2012 in thebackground of agenda of action.

Since Chennai conference, field workers’ movement faced manychallenges. It put up substantial resistance and registered significantachievements. Despite joint demand of OPPI and IDMA to do away withSPE Act; on FMRAI demands national tripartite meetings were held, decisionwas taken for constitution of industrial standing committee for salespromotion employees and SPE Act was extended in 10 other industries.State tripartite meetings, including in Maharashtra and Karnataka, were heldon enforcement of the provisions of SPE Act particularly on issuing legallyamended appointment letters in Form-A as the identity of sales promotionemployees against fragmentation. Prosecution cases have been filed acrossIndia by several state governments against many drug companies for non-implementation of SPE Act particularly in issuing amended appointmentletters in Form-A. Some of the companies started issuing legally amendedappointment letters in Form-A to the existing employees. State amendmentsof section 2(s) for categorical inclusion of all sections of sales promotionemployees have taken place. Legal notification on 8-hours work is beingissued by several state governments. State notification on ‘sales promotionemployees’ in the schedule of Minimum Wages Act and fixation of minimumwages for the sales promotion employees is taking place. All thesedevelopments pushed the drug companies in the defensive.

The world economic crisis which started six years back has deepenedfurther since Chennai conference. With the contraction of market in theWest, India has become the host of foreign capital. The re-entry ofmultinationals through acquisition route and FDI, coupled withGovernment’s cover up exercise of its inaction on top level pharma corporatecorruption, high price of medicines and, on the other hand, raising finger ofaccusation towards field workers and medical practitioners, necessitatingfor rapid market re-structuring for the multinationals, giving birth of newerproblems for the field workers. The whole attempt is to prepare ground forenforcement of a patent regime for medicines of MNCs and market todetermine medicines prices. With the advent of new liberal policies in 1991,through creating three burning problems, the focal point of attacks was onthe trade union, collective bargaining and legal rights and now unleashednewer attacks on the identity and right to work of the field workers. 23rd

conference will definitely assess this new situation and will seek to find theanswer.

There is substantial numerical growth in membership, yet, all the 342local units all over the country need urgent orientation in tune with theneed of the hour. Local units are the action areas. It is the local units whoare to implement all the movemental decisions decided at the top. 23rd

conference will review the functioning of the local units and will endeavourto strengthen it further to meet the newer challenges.

23rd conference is going to make a critical review on all the above areasof movement and developments of three organisational structures viz.general unity, council unity and council sub committee.

In today’s context, FMRAI has become a formidable force in the countryto reckon with. Neither the pharma industry nor the central and stategovernments can simply ignore FMRAI.

Following 23rd conference, field workers’ movement will move forwardwith more determination and will further strengthen it in particular andworking class movement in general.

On to 23rd conference of FMRAI.

On to 23rd Conference

controllers in state capitals on21 January demandingprosecution of Adcock by labourcommissioners for resorting tounfair labour practice andsuspension of its salespromotion activities by drugcontrollers till compliance of law.

Dharna and demonstrationswere staged and memorandawere submitted to drugcontrollers at Kolkata, Patna,Ranchi, Bhubaneswar,Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow,Chandigarh, Indore, Hyderabad,Chennai, Bengaluru, Jammuand Trivandrum. Drugcontrollers in many statesassured appropriate action afterconsulting the provisions of law.

As earlier decided, OSGsstaged dharna, demonstrationand submitted memoranda indistricts all over the country on21 January against six culpritcompanies – Abbott group,Wyeth-Pfizer, Biological E,AstraZeneca, Cosme Farmaand Organon-Fulford-MSD. Itwas additionally decided topress demands with state drugcontrollers and labourcommissioners against Adcock.

Following provisions shall apply forCosme Farma field workers

Transfer Jobs with Ownership ChangeI D Act: Section 25FF: Compensation to workmen in caseof transfer of undertakings

Its second proviso reads as,“Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to a

workman in any case where there has been a change ofemployers by reason of the transfer, if-

(a) the service of the workman has not beeninterrupted by such transfer”

No Change in Service ConditionsI D Act: Section 9-A: Notice of ChangeReads as, “No employer, who proposes to effect any change

in the conditions of service applicable to any workman inrespect of any matter specified in the Fourth Schedule, shallaffect such change,”

For Legally Amended Appointment Letter in Form-ASPE Act Section 5:Reads as, “Issue of appointment letter- Every

employer in relation to a sales promotion employee shallfurnish to such employee letter of appointment in such formas may be prescribed-

(a) in case where he holds appointment as such at thecommencement of this Act, within three months of suchcommencement; and

(b) in any other case on his appointment as such.”

Prescribed form is provided under this section inRule 22(1) as Form-A

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Against unlawful detention of a women fieldworker (name withheld) on 27 November,working in Maxter division of Lupin Limited andpressure built on her there by the regional salesmanager of the Company; the Delhi State unit ofFMRAI, Delhi Sales & Medical Representatives’Organization (DSMRO), demanded of theCompany for immediate removal of the culpritmanager from the Company for his criminalactivity and raised other demands.

On that day, the culprit manager, AsheeshMehendiratta, detained her in the company’soffice situated at Rohini, New Delhi, beyondworking hours and even after the office wasclosed, till 11:00 PM. After taking up the matterwith head office management by Union she was

For Golden Jubilee celebration, a specialsession will be held in the evening of 5 February.CITU’s all India president A. K. Padmanabhanwill inaugurate the session. FMRAI’s many formeroffice bearers, working committee members,some of the all India conveners are expected toparticipate the session and Reception Committeeis gearing up to felicitate them appropriately.

Torture on Lupin Women Field workerthen released. Later, in a retaliatory action andbringing some extraneous and irrelevant issues,she was transferred in other part of Delhi andimposed lock out on her work.

DSMRO also demanded of the Company toissue legally revised appointment letter in FormA under Rule 22(1) of Sales Promotion Employees(Conditions of Service) Rule 1976; withdraw illegaltransfer order issued to her by the said managerand the lockout imposed on her work and payadequate compensation to the victim forharassment and criminal act by the manager.

All India Lupin council committee met atKolkata on 26 January discussed the issue anddecided to further take up the matter with themanagement.

The host unit, WBMSRU, is busy in makingadequate arrangements for the conference,mobilizing funds, undertaken massive publicitycampaign throughout West Bengal, mobilizingfunctionaries for smooth arrangement of theconference etc. under the leadership of Dr.Surya Kanta Mishra, Chairman, ReceptionCommittee.

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Jharkhand Govt. Attacks SalesPromotion Employees

The medical and sales representatives of Jamshedpur inJharkhand, under the banner of their state BSSR Union and all IndiaFMRAI were staging dharna and demonstration in front of districtadministration on 4 December during their country-wide strike. Theunion submitted advance written intimation to the administration abouttheir proposed strike, dharna and demonstration; met the districtadministration and submitted memorandum and peacefully dispersedafter the programme. Surprising, only after conclusion of theprogramme, next day, the district administration filed cases againstthe union under several sections of IPC including section 353purportedly for obstructing government functioning.

All central trade unions in the convention at Ranchi on 9 Decemberand east zone conference of FMRAI, held at Patna also on 9 December,by separate resolutions, condemned this attack on free trade unionmovement. The central trade unions decided to jointly meet the statehome secretary. BSSR Union decided to hold unit general meetings inthe districts of Jharkhand and Bihar and send resolutions and lettersto the chief minister of Jharkhand demanding withdrawal of cases andrestoring normal democratic trade union functioning in the state. Thetrade unions of Singhbhum district on 14 December also condemnedthis action of the administration. (Inputs: Ratan Chakravorty)

AGB of UPMSRAJaunpur Unit150 members of

UPMSRA’s Jaunpur unitattended its annual generalbody meeting on 6January. Beside others,leaders of democraticmovement Kiran ShankarRaghuvanshi and JayPrakash Singh greeted theparticipants. The reportsplaced by unit secretaryand treasurer werediscussed andunanimously adopted. Themeeting unanimouslyelected 15 memberscommittee with DeveshGupta as president,Rajesh Rawat as secretaryand P P Srivastava astreasurer.

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�

FMRAI’s golden-jubilee-flag-march which was flagged off in IndiraPark at Hyderabad on 13 May last, after traveling thousands of milesthroughout the length and breadth of the country, finally entered WestBengal on 3 January for the final lap and will be unfurled in the 23rd

Conference of FMRAI in its golden jubilee year on 4 February atMahajati Sadan, Kolkata, the venue of the conference.

On 18 December, flag jathamoved to Agartala. Around 150members joined in a two wheelerrally to carry the golden jubileeflag and to spread the messageof unity and brotherhood. Aconvention was also organizedwhich discussed the glorioushistory of FMRAI and fieldworkers’ movement. On 20December the flag jatha reachedSilchar, where membersorganized two wheeler rally.

The flag jatha moved toShillong on 21 December and toDimapur on 22 December. Boththe places, meetings wereorganized. The jatha then moved

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to Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat,Nagaon, North Lakhimpur,Tezpur, Nalbari, Barpeta Roadand Bongaigaon during 23 to 30December. Motorcycle rallieswere organized in Tinsukia, NorthLakhimpur and Bongaigaon. Inother places, meetings andconventions were organized andparticipated by hundreds of CRUmembers. The jatah finallyreached to Dhubri wheremembers joined in a convention.In most of the places, the leadersof CITU were present to greet themembers of CRU. More than 1100CRU members participated in thegolden jubilee flag march.

West Bengal

Seminars in West BengalAs a part of campaign in celebrating Golden Jubilee year of FMRAI,

WBMSRU organized seminars in different districts.In presence of a good gathering including about 200 WBMSRU

members, a seminar on “Access to Essential Medicines” was held on7 January at Jila Parishad Hall, Burdwan. FMRAI’s working committeemember, Amitava Guha was the main speaker.

Another seminar on “50 years movement of field workers’” was held atDurgapur on 11 January. FMRAI secretary Sanjay Chatterjee was themain speaker. CITU’s Burdwan district secretary Ajit Mukherjee andFMRAI’s working committee member Debasish Chatterjee also addressed.

A seminar titled “Ajker Dunia o Amader Banga” (Contemporary worldand our Bengal) was held at Rabindra Bhavan, Asansol on 23 January. Inpresence of about 700 audience including large number of WBMSRUmembers, former minister of Left front government and the main speaker,Manab Mukherjee dealt the subject. CITU leader Partha Mukherjee,WBMSRU’s Burdwan district president Tapan Jyoti Goswami and its districtsecretary Debotosh Chakraboerty also addressed on the occasion.

At Mahajati Sadan, Kolkata, the venue for 23rd conference, a seminaron “Medicines for all” was held on 22 January in presence of about 1000audience including present and former members of WBMSRU. During hisdeliberation, former finance minister of West Bengal Left front governmentand noted economist Dr. Ashim Dasgupta expressed concern on theeconomic situation of the country and criticized government’s policy inmaking pharma PSUs sick. Dr. B. Iqbal, ex vice chancellor of KeralaUniversity, while appreciating FMRAI’s role in the movement on drug issues,touched upon the drug pricing, data exclusivity, data protection etc. Jointconvener of Jana Sasthya Abhiyan and FMRAI’s working committeemember, Amitava Guha dealt unethical marketing practices indulged inby the drug cartels, role of CDSCO vis-à-vis procedure for granting licensesfor marketing etc. Former drug controller of West Bengal, eminent medicalpractitioner, Dr. Santanu Tripathy also delivered on this occasion. WBMSRUpresident Robin Dev chaired the seminar.

A seminar titled “Current situation & field workers’ movement” washeld at Howrah district CITU office on 25 January. FMRAI’s joint generalsecretary A. K. Banerjee addressed the gathering.

In presence of WBMSRU members, CRU’s secretary RahulPurakayastha handed over the flag to WBMSRU general secretarySumahan Chakrabarty. WBMSRU’s vice president Madhu Sudan Somhoisted the flag at WBMSRU state centre and office of the ReceptionCommittee of the conference at Entally. A mass meeting was held therewhich was addressed by Rahul Purakayastha, M S Som, SumahanChakraborty and FMRAI secretary Santanu Chatterjee.

Now, the flag is marching accross West Bengal and would bebrought to the venue of the conference for hoisting on 4 February.

The 4th wagesettlement betweenWin-Medicare andFMRAI’s committeewas signed on 24January at the headoffice of the companyat Delhi. The averagebenefit was Rs. 6678with minimumincrease of Rs.5613and maximum beingRs.12756 per fieldworker per monthbesides the increasein working allowance.The settlement is for three years,effective from 1 April, 2012 andwill remain valid up to 31 March,2015.

The existing pay scale shall bereplaced with the introduction ofsalary range – first range upto 10years, from Rs. 7000 to Rs. 10213and open ended second rangeabove 10 years from Rs. 11350.Annual increment, with effect from1st April 2012, would be at therate of 3.85% up to 10 years and3.5% of the basic of precedingyear thereafter. With the upwardrevision of basic pay, field workerswould be consequently andsubstantially benefited in terms ofspecial allowance, house rent,

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LTA and medical as those arepercentage linked with basic pay.

All field workers would beentitle to Rs.500 per month as citycompensatory allowance,introduced as a new componentin this settlement. The metro cityallowance has been increased toRs. 1500 from existing Rs. 1000and vehicle maintenanceallowance has been increased byRs. 200.

From January 2013 to March2013, headquarter and ex-headquarter allowances would beincreased by Rs. 20 and againwould be increased by Rs. 10 fromApril 2013. Staying allowance forout station work has been

increased by Rs. 100till March 2013 and byRs. 150 from April2013. In addition to outstation allowance, as anew components ofthis settlement, whileworking in hill station,field workers areentitled to anotherRs.500 as hotelallowance; forattending meetingwithin region,additional Rs.600 andRs. 800 for meeting

outside the region.Per kilometer travel fare has

been increased from Rs. 2.20 toRs. 3.20 and for every Rs. 5 hikein petrol prices, there will be 10paisa automatic r ise in perkilometer travel fare.

On behalf of the management,J.N Khurana, vp-operation;S.S.Aurora, vp- marketing &sales; Ritu Sikka, associatedirector- human resources andSandeep Anand, director- sales& marketing and on behalf ofnegotiating committee, KaushikSarkar, Lindsay Melville, MukeshKumar, Gir ish Kalra, HiteshParekh and P.C.Thomas signedthe settlement.

Sitting (From L to R) – Sandeep Anand, Ritu Sikka andS. S. Aurora. Standing (From L to R)- Mukesh Kumar,Lindsay Melvile, Girish Kalra, Kaushik Sarkar, HiteshParekh and P. C. Thomas

In a spontaneous reaction,Geno field workers all over thecountry resorted to lightning strikeon 5 January when they came toknow that their west zoneconvener and negotiating /consultative committee member SK Bedekar expired on 4 Januaryfollowing a massive cardiac arrest.In protest, MSMRA observed‘black day’ on 24 January againstvictimization policy on salesground by the drug companies,wore black badges and conducteddemonstrations before all districtlabour authorities in Maharashtraand submitted memoranda.

Earlier, on 17 December, Genofield workers resorted to day’scountrywide notified strike inpursuance of the demands

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including revocation of transfer ofBedekar from Mumbai to Ratnagiri.Management transferred Bedekarat a time when few months wereleft for him to reachsuperannuation. Geno fieldworkers were agitated againstmanagement’s arbitrary and

whimsical actions of holding fieldworkers exclusive responsible for‘sales’ and taking actions on thatbasis like transfer, termination,issuing ‘stop work’ order,withholding of salary and otherpayments which also includedBedekar. Their seething angerburst out hearing the news ofBedekar’s demise.

Comrade Sudhir Bedekar, 56,left behind his wife, a son and ailingfather. Large number of Mumbaibased field workers gathered in hisfuneral. A condolence meeting atDombivili was held on 11 January.

FMRAI mourns the untimelydeath of Comrade Sudhir KBedekar and sends hear tfeltcondolence to his bereavedfamily.

Comrade S K Bedekar

Ranu Kumar Yadav of Elder Pharma, with headquarter at Lucknow, was shocked to learn that hepurportedly resigned from company’s job through hisemail at 19.12 hours on 11 December, 2012 and his‘resignation’ was already ‘accepted’ by themanagement through their email at 3.30 PM (inadvance) on the same day followed by company’spostal signed communication on 12 December.

Overcoming his shock, Ranu Kumar informed thecompany that he did not send any email to thecompany containing his resignation from job; thaton that very day on 11 December, he was attendingcompany’s cycle meeting at Jaipur along with themanagers and his other colleagues.

On returning, Renu Kumar Yadav filed an FIR atHussainganj police station, Lucknow and a case hasbeen registered under sections 419, 420, 467, 468,471 of IPC and sections 66, 66B, 84 of BIT Act of2000 (cyber crime).

The CoH of Cyber Crime Cell of Hazratganj areaof Lucknow in his letter of 23rd January, 2013addressed to the president of Elder PharmaceuticalsLimited informed that the case, as registered under

Cyber Crime in Elderdifferent sections, was under investigation; that duringinvestigation it was found that the purpor tedresignation letter of Ranu Kumar Yaday was sent froma cyber café at Lucknow hacking his email ID; thatwhen the said hacked mail was sent from Luckow, atthat time Renu Kumar Yadav was attending company-arranged meeting at Jaipur and on that the cybercrime cell had sufficient evidence. Hence, the CoHinformed, that Renu Kumar Yadav did not sent thepurported electronic mail on his resignation. Henceit would be legally justified to cancel the purportedresignation letter and reinstate him. The report wassent to the company to act in advance!

Few questions definitely will be investigated bythe police that as how explain acceptance ofresignation a few hours in advance as per recordedtiming; why there was such a speed in acceptingresignation even if timing is ignored; as to whymanagement did not wait for signed letter ofresignation; as to why the resignation has not yetbeen revoked despite Supreme Court’s direction ofsubsequent denial / withdrawal. Obviously, it will befound out as to who the culprit / culprits were.

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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�������� � !"

OdishaStarted from the state

capital Bhubaneswar andafter marching in 15 districts for 27days and participated by hundredsof enthusiastic members of OSRU,ended at the state’s oldest cityCuttack. Leaders of CITU, fraternaltrade unions and chemists’organization addressed themembers at various places. InBhubaneswar, a meeting washeld at CITU’s state centre.Subsequently, the jatha moved toBerhampur where a two wheelerrally was organized. A meetingwas held at Sahid Laxman Nayakcommunity hall which wasaddressed by OSRU’s jointgeneral secretary B N Sahu,besides leaders of CITU and otherfraternal trade unions. Next inJeypur, from the bus stand the flagwas carried to the union’s office ina rally and general body meetingwas organized there. As the flagreached at Bhawanipatna, a twowheeler rally with golden jubileeflag moved entire town and a streetcorner meeting was held in frontof the district head quarterhospital. Thereafter, in Balangir,the flag was hoisted at unit officeand meeting was organized. After

���� !����� ��������������������Flag March

the meeting, a two wheeler rallymoved to the office of thecollectorate covering the majorareas of the town and convertedinto a street corner meeting,addressed by AnirudhaMohapatra, joint general secretaryOSRU. A massive two wheelerrally was taken out in Bargarh fromthe railway station chawk, travelledthe important places of the townand culminated in a street cornermeeting. In the evening, a candlelight procession was organizedwith FMRAI’s flag. In Sambalpur,a general body meeting wasorganized, which was addressedby OSRU vice president SanjayKumar and secretary SatyabrataMohapatra. In Rourkela, a hallmeeting was organized on the firstday which was addressed byleaders of CITU and other fraternaltrade unions. On the next day, astreet corner meeting was held. InBalasore, the flag was hoisted anda general body meeting wasorganized. Bhadrak unitorganized a rally which movedthrough medicine market, hospitalcampus and other importantplaces of the town and reached tothe union’s office where the flagwas hoisted. A general bodymeeting was organized,

addressed by OSRU’s secretaryAmar Kumar Acharya, CITU andothers leaders. Jajpur Town unithoisted the flag in union’s officepremises and organized a hallmeeting. In Jajpur Road, a twowheeler rally was taken out withFMRAI’s golden jubilee flag and ahall meeting was organized whichwas addressed by CITU leaders.A rally was held with the flag atKeonjhar and street cornermeeting was held. On the next day,a hall meeting was organized. InAngul flag was received with arally and a street corner meetingwas organized. On the next day,the flag was hoisted in union’soffice premises and a hall meetingwas organized to discuss theglorious history of FMRAI. InCuttack, a two wheeler rally wasbrought out from RavenshawUniversity which moved toSubhash Chandra Bose medicalcollege campus where a streetcorner meeting was organized,addressed by OSRU’s generalsecretary Subhankar Das.Following day, a hall meeting wasorganized in the union’s officepremises and was addressed byRabinarayan Mallick, joint convenerof Odisha Sramik KarmachariEkata Manch (OSKEM).

To commemorate the GoldenJubilee celebration, FMRAI’s flagmarch programme which startedat Hyderabad on 13 May this year,after moving various units of south,west and north zones, entered ineast zone on 25 November atJamshedpur and after marching in21 units, concluded on 15December at Katihar. During itsjourney in Bihar and Jharkhand,BSSRU members organizedcolourful decorative rallies, unitmeetings, addressed by BSSRUand fraternal trade unions leaders,organized blood donation camps,conventions, two wheelers rally etc.

BSSRU vice president BiswajitDeb received the flag, brought tothe union office at Jamshedpurthrough a big rally. FMRAI’sworking committee member

Bihar - JharkhandDebasish Dey hoistedthe flag. 63 membersdonated blood andearlier, organized aconvention. InRanchi, BSSRU jointgeneral secretaryAnirban Bose hoistedthe flag, organizedrally and held unitmeeting. Daltoganjunit organized blooddonation camp andgave membership to

new field workers. Dhanbad unitconducted a mass meeting atRandhir Verma Chowk,addressed by Ashim Haldar;organized blood donation campand greeted by Lal MohanMahato, SDM, IMA president Dr.S.K.Karan, insurance leader,Hemant Mishra and others.

Flag march programme wasbefittingly organized in Giridih,Deoghar, Bhagalpur, Mungerand Sasaram also. Dehri-on-Sone unit organised rally, fourstreet corner meetings and aconvention was held, addressedby fraternal trade union leaders.Members of Aurangabad unitparticipated in these programme.Unit general meetings, flaghoisiting, rallies were conducted inGaya, Chapra, Siwan,

Muzaffarpur, Laheriasarai,Samastipur, Begusarai andSaharsha units.

The flag reached Patna on 6December and received byBSSRU secretary Debashish Roy.A special meeting was organized,addressed by FMRAI’s vicepresident L.N. Chakraborty,BSSRU president SanjayChatterjee, general secretary D.Bhattacharjee, Kalyan Acharya,treasurer besides Bihar state CITUgeneral secretary Arun KumarMishra and other fraternal tradeunion leaders. Past members ofBSSR Union was also invited andattended.

In a colourful rally in Purnea,the flag was brought to Rest Houseand hoisted. BSSRU secretaryR.S. Rai addressed the unitmeeting. Thereafter, R. S. Raicarried the flag and handed overto Katihar unit secretary UdayKumar Dey and was hoisted byunit president Arup GhoshMajumdar. Kalyan Acharya,among others, addressed ameeting.

From Katihar, FMRAI’s workingcommittee member and BSSRUnion’s treasurer Kalyan Acharyacarried the flag to North East andhanded over to CRU on 16December.

From Bihar-Jharkhand,FMRAI’s golden jubilee flagreached Guwahati on 16December where CRU’spresident Pradip Roy and itsgeneral secretary Bijon Das

North Eastreceived the flag . A colourful twowheeler rally, participated by themembers of CRU, carried the flagthrough important places ofGuwahati. A street cornermeeting was organized which was

addressed by FMRAI’s secretarySantanu Chatterjee besideothers. Next Day, the flag jathareached Imphal where aconvention was organized.

219 delegates and 6 observers from 15 out of total 16 units ofKSM&SRA assembled at Arya Vaishya Samaja Kalyana Mantapa, Hubliin 22nd conference of Karnataka State Medical & Sales Representatives’Association (KSM&SRA), held during 12 – 13 January. The venue wasdedicated in the name of former FMRAI’s president, Comrade GeorgeVerghese and the dais was dedicated in the name of Comrade Prashantwho was a member of Hubli unit and died in a road accident.

Following the hoisting of KSM&SRA flag by its president L.M.Peshwaand paying floral tributes to the martyrs, the conference began withlighting the lamp by FMRAI’s secretray T. Kameshwar Rao. After thedeliberations of Basavaraj Horatti, MLC and former education ministerand reception committee chairman and chief guest of the conferenceDr.Vasantha Kamath, director KIMS, Hubli, the leaders of various fraternalorganizations greeted the delegates and observers in the inauguralsession which include A. H. Ayi, CITU’s Hubli district vice president,AIIEA leader B.N.Pujar, BSNL employees union Hubli district presidentHarish Doddamani, AIBEA leader Stefan Jayachandra, leader of SFIVinayal Kurubar addressed and greeted the conference.

After the conclusion of inaugural session, a colourful rally was takenout which passed the main thoroughfare of Hubli, highlighting the variouspeople oriented demands.

23 delegates deliberated on the general secretary Jaya Ganesh andtreasurer Sathya Poorna’s reports which were adopted unanimously.22nd conference adopted various resolutions including on the demandsof KSM&SRA pending before Karnataka State government, on GoldenJubilee celebration of FMRAI, to make the 20 – 21 February countrywidegeneral strike a grand success, against high price of medicines, unethicalmarketing and trading and illegal clinical trials by pharma corporates, tobuild up own building of KSM&SRA at Bangalore and on other issues.

FMRAI secretary T. Kameshwar Rao greeted the delegates in thebusiness session. 22nd conference also felicitated KSM&SRA leader andFMRAI’s former general council member, Srikant for his contribution toKSM&SRA. The conference elected 11 office bearers and 15 workingcommittee members with H.J.Suresh as president, L.M.Peshwa asgeneral secretary and Jaya Ganesh as treasurer.

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The general body meeting inSrinagar was held on 23December and was attended bymore than 200 members.FMRAI’s secretary R P Singhaddressed the gathering. A 25member preparatory committeewas unanimously elected.

210 members attended theAnnual General Body Meeting ofAnantnag unit of JKMSRA on 24December. CITU Kashmir state’sgeneral secretary Om Prakashaddressed the meeting. Thereports placed by secretary andtreasurer were unanimouslyadopted after discussion. A 23member executive body wasunanimously elected with

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#� $���������%��&��������$Samiullah as president, BasheerAhmed Ganne as secretary andPeerzada Shuza as treasurer.

In Jammu, conference washeld on 3 January which wasinaugurated by Mohammad YousufTarigami, MLA and state presidentof CITU. Beside others, seniorCITU leaders Om Prakash andSham Prasad Kesar addressed.PCMSRU secretary SanjeevaMahajan also addressed.

The conference adoptedseveral resolutions which includestrict enforcement of SPE Act,state government’s notification on8 hours work for the salespromotion employees, declarationand enforcement of minimumwage as Rs. 10,000/- per month,legal working right of the salespromotion employees in hospitals,institutions and clinics and 6months maternity for women fieldworkers. A 17 member committeewas unanimously elected withSurinder Singh as president, ArunBasotra as secretary andHardeep Singh as treasurer.

General Body Meeting at Srinagar

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Dhanbad