ARTEE Gujarat unit organized first ever state convention in Ahmedabad
on 16th November 2003. the convention organized in a very disciplined
manner was a grand success all the way. Hon'ble Sh. Bhavin Seth, MLA
from Elis Bridge, inaugurated the function. Sh. R.K. Gupta, E-in-C (Doordarshan)
graced the function as Chief Guest. Other guests of honour were Sh.
R. Krishnan, CE (West), Sh. S.R. Agarwal, DE(Personnel), Sh.Shravan
Garg, Chief Editor,Divya Bhaskar and all the local senior officers of
AIR , Doordarshan and DMC Ahmedabad.
Sh. Bhavin Seth, while appreciating the spirit of Engineering staff
of electronic media for running the media uninterrupted during the earth-quake
of 2000 and later during the violence after Godhara train incident of
2002, offered any help that the state govt. may provide to consolidate
and expand the media in the state, including allocation of land and
other facilities.
Sh. Gupta while welcoming the launch of the 24 hrs terrestrial news
channel, was all praise for the DD staff who are working against odds,
especially during these severe staff shortage periods. He expressed
optimism that after the SIU report staff position may improve. Sh Gupta
also announced that the long pending demand of shifting LPTV Modassa
to a better site will be decided soon. He also announced that two numbers
of HPTV's at Vadodara and Radhanpur will come up shortly and the uplinking
will be digitized soon.
Sh. R. Krishnan, CE(WZ) assured all help in the staff matters. The gathering
was also addressed by Sh. Shravan Garg, Chief Editor, Divya Bhaskar,
a Hindi Daily. Sh. Garg was critical of DD authorities for taking the
challenge of private media very lightly. A Data Book was also released
by the Chief Guest to commemorate the occasion. The Data Book is an
information bank, very useful for staff and officers.
Post Lunch Session was a unique experience for the staff. Both CE (WZ)
and DE (Personnel) had a one to one question answer session. A number
of staff problems, mainly regarding transfers, were solved on the spot.
Sh. Krishnan was frank enough to answer in negative in certain cases.
This 'Lok Adalat' session enthused and satisfied the staff members.
After the Lok Adalat, Mr. Thomas John, General Secretary, India Liaison
Council of UNI, addressed the delegates and emphasized the need for
unity amongst the workers community. He was all praise for this kind
of Lok Adalat. He also quoted some examples in which employees of DoT
got protection from ILO with the help of UNI.
Delegate session was held thereafter and continued till beyond 9 PM.
This session was also held in a disciplined manner where zonal and central
office bearers clarified many doubts raised by members. The organizing
committee under the leadership of Sh. S.D. Rathod, Sh. Prabhakar Varshney
and Sh. A.K. Mantri had to work under many constraints, but they came
out with flying colours.