Today I am at Belgaum. In the evening there was a meeting of the BSNL employees held in the Telephone Bhawan premises. A big pandal was raised for the meeting. More than 400 comrades participated. The meeting was presided over by Com. Hanjanamani, President, BSNLEU. Com. C.K.Gundanna, Circle secretaary, BSNLEU welcomed all and spoke about the agitation on the ITS repatriation issue and the present situation. All the lederrs in the dais were honoured by garlanding them.

I spoke about the reason fir the agitation, our demands, the necessity of bettering the serrvices, the efforts made by the Forum in this connection, the strength and weaknesses of BSNL, the anti-PSU policy of the government, the call of the Central TUs for strike on 20-21 February on the crucial issues of price rise, disinvestment etc.

Coms. Panduranga naik, AGS, SNEA, Hittalamani, DS, AIBSNLEA, M.C.Balakrishna, Org. secretary BSNLEU,Sambedkar, DS, NFTE, Birse, DS BSNLEU, Vijay Gaonkar, DS, Goa, Thadpathy, DS, SNEA, Keshav, Circle Treasurer, BSNLEU and other leaders were in the dais.

I had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of AIBDPA who were present there. They reported to me about the Circle Conference of AIBDPA, Karnataka.