General Pool Accommodation-Marginal relief: NFADE has been struggling for the retention of the facilities of Central Government employees such as general Pool Accommodation, CGHS and admission in Central schools etc to the employees of AIR &DD. We have taken up the matter with various authorities. The issue was taken as agenda point in the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Accommodation (headed by Sh. Arjun Singh, Hon'ble Minister for HRD). It is learnt that the Committee has agreed to extend some relief to the staff of AIR &DD by freezing the number of quarters available with it upto 2007. The details are awaited.
· Report of State Secretary Orissa:
Sh.B.B.Das, State Secretary, Orissa had meetings with our members on his visit to the AIR/LPTV Rourkela, LPTV Jharsguda and AIR& DDK Sambalpur.
At Rourkela the issues discussed where Single man shift at LRS, Surrender of Telephones at Transmitter, Uniformity in duty chart, Treatment facility at the Indira Gandhi Hospital of Rourkela Steel Plant etc. Sh.Das has taken up all these matters with the Incharges of AIR & LPTV, to settle the cases locally or to refer the cases to the Directorate. The meeting observed that necessary action from the Directorate should be taken to improve the revenue collection from Rourkela.

At Jharsguda, the members pointed out the impact of bifurcation of EZ & NEZ on the promotional prospects of the sub-ordinate engineering cadres. They have further requested for necessary action for the repair of LPTV building and other equipments. Both the matters has been taken up with the President & VP(EZ) and had discussion with the in-charge of LPTV and the DDO of the DMC who assured their full support to resolve the problems.
At Sambalpur, after detailed discussion with the members, Sh.Das, along with the members, met the Station Engineers of AIR & DDK (ASE) Sambalpur and discussed the following issues; follow the staff norms for transmitter, allotment of vacant staff quarters, timely holding of LISCC meetings, early settlement of disciplinary actions pending against some members at AIR, irregularities in transfer/posting of some members in AIR, maintenance work at DDK staff quarters, GPF pass book of Group D employees, training to staff, problems arising due too the extension of transmission hours at DDK etc. He has taken up the matter over phone with President, VP(EZ), Sh.R.R.Prasad (CE).
· State Secretary UP met E-in-C(AIR) at Lucknow:
Sh.R.S,Gupta, State Secretary, UP State met Sh.K.M.Paul, Engineer in Chief, AIR on his visit to Lucknow. In this meeting Sh.Gupta requested E-in-C to take necessary steps to remove the problems faced by the candidates appearing for the SEA-AE Examination.

He has suggested the recommendations such as: at least 3 months time should be provided from the time of notification of exam, dates should not coincide with the date of children's board exam, preparatory training should be provided to all candidates, the number of papers should be increased to cover the entire syllabus, a gap of one day should be provided between each paper & subscription of Training News should be started. It was also pointed out that some stations are not proposing candidates for training and in some places they are not relieving staff for training on various reasons.
· Meeting of ARTEE(WZ) with CE(WZ):
ARTEE West Zone committee, under the leadership of Sh.M.P.Joshi, VP(WZ) had a meeting with the CE(WZ) on 26th April 2005 at 02.30pm. The following points were discussed in the meeting.
Categorisation of AIR Stations, Shifting of posts should be avoided, Staff quarters position at HPT,AIR, Malad, Application for transfer should be sent to personnel cell only, Transfer order should have some schedule, ACP to Helpers, Transfer should be minimised, Incentive to staff not getting OTA, Laying of pipe line of water supply at AIR Parbhani staff quarters, Pay fixation of Sh.P.C.Kaul, Sr.Tech, DDK Ahmedabad, LPTs to be shifted to AIR premises wherever possible, various problems at LPT Karaira under DMC Shivpuri, maintenance of staff quarters at DDK Bhopal, Noise problem in transmitters at DDK Gwalior & Bhopal, Feeder change over switch at AIR Parbhani etc. The Zonal committee has got a positive hearing and assurances from the authorities. The minutes of the meeting is available in our website.
· UNI APRO / FES Organiser's Course for Young Unionists 4 -10 July 2005 Colombo, Sri Lanka: The aim of the course was to provide young leaders, of the affiliated Unions/Associations, with the knowledge and skills to enable them to be active organizers and motivators. Leaders of various Unions/Associations from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region attended the Course.
Sh.Dayal Talukdar, Vice-President, North East Zone represented ARTEE in this Organiser's Course.