The occasion of the release of the book of Com. P.V.Chandrasekharan, “P and T Trade Union movement in Kerala” at Press Club, Thiruvananthapuram yesterday, 19th June 2014, was an unexpected opportunity for me to meet many of the veteran leaders of the movement in Kerala, including those who have worked with me while in Kerala.
In the meeting Com.C.C.Pillai, the former Secretary General of NFPE, who was also Chairman of the Confederation of CG Employees was present. He was in CHQ Delhi for about 10 years and later as CITU Working Committee member. He is now at Kollam with his family and fully engaged with trade union movement and also politics. He is an active leader of the CPI(M) in the District. We had close connection both at Thiruvananthapuram when we were both Circle Secretaries of E.III and R.III unions respectively and also at New Delhi. We could not get much time to discuss issues, but at least could meet and greet each other. His wife, both his sons Ajoy and Bijoy were all part of the union activities at Delhi.
Another senior comrade I could meet was Com. P.Balakrishnan (or PB 2 as he is called familiarly), who was the Circle Secretary of P.III Union and also Secretary of NFPE. I was meeting him after a long time and exchanged pleasantries.
Com.K.Arjunan, former Circle secretary, T.IV, Union was there as usual in every important TU function at Thiruvananthapuram. Now he is a leader of the AIBDPA, the organisation of the DOT-BSNL Pensioners, and fully engaged with the same. We were circle secretaries of the unions at the same period. we talked about the past and the present activities.
There were also a large number of other former and present leaders and activists of the P and T Unions. Some of them like Coms. G.Sasidharan Asari, K.Leelamma, R.R.Verma etc. were closely connected with the union work and are activists of AIBDPA now. There were many comrades who are the present office-bearers of NFPE and BSNLEU and active workers whom it will be difficult to name all.
Of course, the All India leaders of NFPE and BSNLEU like Com.M.Krishnan, Secretary General NFPE, R.Muralidharan Nair, AGS, BSNLEU, K.Mohanan, CS Kerala were all parts of the organisers. And Com. P.V.Chandrasekharan, who wrote the book was of course, there. All of had discussion together about the current tasks in the union front.
I have only mentioned a few comrades. There were many others like Com. A. Velayudhan Nair, who is now a well known Advocate,with whom I had been closely connected and were present in the meeting.
Yes, the occasion of the release of the book by Com.PVC was an excellent opportunity for me to meet all of these comrades.
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