From the moderators desk :
Road Accidents in VSP and Ukkunagram are on the rise. We heard that an employee got a head injury on 9th April, as he was going to B-Shift duty, which later proved fatal. Any news on this may please be shared with all of us.Two Wheeler riders are kindly advised to wear helmets with chin straps on.
The I.T exhibition organized by CSI on 14th April, was a routine one. Most of the stalls belonged to Computer vendors. To fill up space, some QC project model of sinter plant and some other deptt. were also displayed. The only different stall belonged to Banyan Networks, who claim that they are trying to introduce DSL based internet in Vizag. They are hoping to get VSP management's clearance for linking township exchange to an internet node. They say they will provide the service if there are a minimum of 300 subscribers. They want to charge around Rs3000/- as the initial deposit and Rs.500-800 pm. The DSL modem will be provided along with the initial deposit. We have to wait and see. I doubt if there are 300 ardent users of internet in Ukkunagaram, going by local membership of UkkuNews. There are many people with a PC and telephone but see no reason for going for an internet connection. They are scared even to use it for e-mails as they think they will slowly get addicted to browsing, chatting and time wasting temptations on the net, which would inflate their phone bills. Not that they are entirely wrong. Contact Mr Ch. S . Rao of "KABTRONICS", for more details. You may phone them at 040-6577480 or on mobile : 98480-38987.
 
Kindly visit UkkuNews home page at   http://www.oocities.org/ukkunews1/index.htm
Transfers
Some senior Executives in the rank of DGM's have been said to be transferred as shown below. The news may not entirely be true.
  • Sri. G. Venkata Rao, from Works Contract to CED
  • Sri. G. Srinivasa Rao, from FMD to Works Contract
  • Sri. M.K Bandopadhyaya, from CO & CCP to FMD.......(tentative)
Ukunagaram Club
An Extraordinary GBM was held on April 13th. Some of the bye laws have been changed. Now the eligibility for nomination to the post of an executive committee member is only 6 months of Club membership, for Gen secy. post, it is 3 years of membership or experience of any post in club committee earlier, for a period of at least one year. People who have been elected into Club committee three times earlier will not be eligible for contesting. The elections will be held on 25th April, as per the returning Officer Mr SK Bose. 
Currently known contestants in the fray are Parthibhan and TV Sehagiri Rao for Hony. Secy., Kiran Kumar A, for Jt. Secy.  Madhu
  • English movie "Blame it on the Rio" on April 15th
  • Telegu Movie, on April 18th.
  • Hindi Movie, "kahin Pyaar naa hoo jayay", on 21st April. *Rani Mukherjee
SEA News
SEA committee members went to meet the Union Steel minister Mr. Brijesh Tripathy at Bhubaneshwar Airport on 14th April, to ask about pay revision of Executives. He said that everything is cleared for VSP. But we have to wait for SAIL pay revision and NJCS talks to get through. On being asked if our pay revision can be delinked from SAIL or NJCS, the answer from him was in the negative. He said pay revision is likely in May and will figure in June pay slip Srinu
 
! Googly News !
recently L.N. mittal group announced that they are taking back their bid for HZL. people here in vsp were apprehensive that mittal has come very near to us and god knows what will happen if he bids and gets vsp(people say, I don't have any experience) working under a marwari owner is the most unfortunate in any professional's life he simply sucks ur blood, but good news is, it is being said that mittal left the project because he doesn't have money, previously also he back out from air India bid. let's enjoy! one shark is dead. sushil
 
! havoc of the first shower !
On Saturday the 14th of April at 6.30 hrs, APSEB feeder to  SMS area failed.    sushil
 
Thrift Society
VSP Thrift Society has announced that the ceiling limit for Acceptance of Fixed deposits have been increased. Now a maximum of Rs. 19,000/- can be accepted in cash per person. Amounts can be deposited in the names of dependant family members also. There is no limit to amount of deposits if money is paid by DD's or cheques.  The interest on deposits are 11%, 12.5% and 14% respectively for 1, 2 and 3 yearly deposits, on annual compounding basis. The fixed deposits will be accepted between 20th and 6th of following month only.  <from a circular dated 27.03.2001>
 
Conserve Water
It is seen that some of the occupants of Ukkunagaram Township are tampering with the water supply system by removing floats and allowing water to overflow. It is also seen that extra connections are tapped from main incoming line. To keep the supply of water to resident quarters un-interrupted, the residents of Township are requested to avoid wastage of water to gardens/drains and overflow to conserve water and help in tiding over the crisis during the coming summer months. Residents are requested to co-operate with the Township water supply deptt., for stopping water leakages and fixing of floats in Overhead tanks, to arrest overflow.  Roy Bera SM
 
Tool down Strike in VSP on 16th April / General strike on April 17th
The tool down strike by all unions, on 16th April, in all 3 shifts did not make much of an impact. The truth is that it was hardly noticed. Moreover workmen hardly carry any tools these days so that they require to put it down(pun intended). As such workmen work only 2 or 3 hours in a 8 hr shift. So a 2 hour tool down in each shift was not of any consequence. The canteens overflowed with workmen during the 2 hours. It went off peacefully without any untoward  incidents. In case you forgot, the strike was to protest against the anti labour policies of the NDA Govt. in the centre.
The strike on April 17th was a total failure because all departments did normal production. Only the dedicated members of CITU cadre kept away from work. Most of the workmen were afraid of loosing precious incentive and did not support the strike though pay revisions are required by every one. Appa Rao
 
Grapevine
Chargesheets are said to have been issued by the Steel Ministry to Mr Panda and SKS Narayan, in connection with the case of Premature failure of Coke Oven batt-2. The pay revision of executives has taken a back seat in wake of new chargesheets being issued every day. Even Dr. BN Singh seems to be a worried man from the grim face he is putting, on the various interviews telecast on SITI cable.
 
Central Maintenance Mechanical And Computers.
CMM, the heavy duty maintenance gang of VSP was called to fix a problem in the cooling system of  IBM Mainframe Computer.IBM was down for almost two days since 13th April due to leakages in the cooling system and storage device failures.CMC is currently holding the contract for hardware maintenance of IBM at VSP. Looks like an in-house competitor for CMC !.
Incidentally VSP has signed the agreement for server based systems on this juncture itself.Our good old IBM which has sent many VSPians abroad may loose its importance once this Oracle8i based system is ready.Those who still have some fire inside can gear up to "project" some experience in one more platform.
Compass.