Kerala state committee, with the help of AIR & DD units of Thrissur organized a meeting of unit secretaries of Kerala State at Natya Griha, at Thrissur, the Cultural Capital of Kerala on 18th February 2004. The meeting was organized in a very disciplined and simple manner. Anilkumar S, General Secretary, inaugurated the function, which was chaired by Sh. Boban George, State Secretary, Kerala. Sh. R. Raman, Vice-President, Sh.R. Ramasubrahmaniam, AGS(TV) of South Zone and Sh.Harikrishnan, Organising Secretary, Karnataka State also addressed meeting and interacted with the members. While Sh. Harilal, Co-ordinator of DMC Cochin welcomed the members, Sh. Ashok kumar, Unit Secretary, AIR, Thrissur extended the vote of thanks. Sh G.P. Nair, SE, DMC Thrissur and Sh.N.M. Kumar, SE, AIR Thrissur were also guests of honour at the meeting.
      Sh. Anilkumar called upon the members to prepare for a strong struggle against the movement of Prasar Bharati and Government of India to deploy personnel on contract basis instead of filling up the vacant posts in AIR & Doordarshan.
      Sh.R. Raman, while addressing the house cautioned the members on the movement of the Prasar Bharati to run the LPTs on contract basis and also demanded for broadening the promotional avenues for the cadres like Senior Technician.
      Sh. Madhusudanan Nair, District Secretary, Central Government Employees Co-ordination Council, Thiruvananthapuram addressed the meeting in a special session to stress the need of the hour to be united for protecting the rights of employees especially in the light of globalisation and market economy. He pointed out that outsourcing and contractual system is not only affecting AIR & Doordarshan but all other departments in this changing scenario. So he urged for a wider unity concept to tackle the issue He enriched the delegates with the past experiences of strikes way back in sixties seventies and eighties.
      More than 100 delegates from 30 units across the state attended the meeting
      Delegate session was held thereafter and continued well beyond 6 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 along with unit secretaries and members of Thrissur units deserve appreciation for the arrangements.

ACTIVITIES ORGANISED BY GUJARAT STATE COMMITTEE

a. LPT Meeting: A meeting of state office bearers, coordinator and unit secretaries of LPT under DMC Ahmedabad was organized at LPT Patan. In all 32 members participated and a host of issues were discussed.
b. ARTEE Desktop: A unique notice board is installed in Engineers room at DDK Ahmedabad. The board divided in two parts is used for putting up notices, circulars, posters as well as for writing messages etc. Ambience is given hi-fi touch with the installation of an FM radio with extra speakers in false ceiling.
c. Van Mahotsav: State unit organized Van Mahotsav programme in DDK Ahmedabad under the able guidance and inspiration of Supdt. Engineer Sh. A.K. Gupta. Saplings for this programme were provided by Van Chetna Kendra (Forest Deptt.). Senior officials of Kendra along with ARTEE members took part in the event.
d. Training Course for Departmental Exam: State committee is also organizing a training course from 5th August for Helpers and Sr. Technicians to prepare them for the Departmental examination. State committee will provide working lunch an accommodation to all the candidates. Desirous candidates may contact Sh. Rathod (State Sec), Sh. Prabhakar (Organising Sec) or Sh. Ashok Mantri (Publicity Sec).

The organizers deserve appreciation from all quarters.