People's Democracy

 

 

CZIEA Holds 7th Conference

 

B Sanyal

 

THE Central Zone Insurance Employees’ Association (CZIEA) held its seventh general conference at Jyoti Basu Nagar, Sindhu Bhawan, Bhopal from October 24 to 27, urging the insurance employees throughout the central zone to work relentlessly to consolidate the organisation at all levels by utilising the unprecedented confidence generated amongst the employees because of the glorious wage revision achieved by the AIIEA in the face of a very difficult and challenging situation. The conference was hosted by BDIEU, the Bhopal divisional unit of the CZIEA.

 

The city of Bhopal wore a festive look because of the hard work put in by the comrades of Bhopal division to make the conference a success. Basudeb Acharya, leader of the CPI(M) group in Lok Sabha and CITU vice president, inaugurated the conference while AIIEA general secretary K Venu Gopal was the chief guest. AIIEA president Amanullah Khan and its joint secretary Shrikant Mishra were the special guests at the conference. Renowned progressive poet Rajesh Joshi was the chairman of the reception committee. 

 

On October 24, a huge rally and procession, with thousands of workers and people from all walks of life, came out from Yaadgar-E-Shahajahani Park, Bhopal the venue of the inaugural session. After taking a round of the nearby aread, the procession returned to the venue which was beautifully decorated with hundreds of red flags and festoons. The stage of the inaugural session was named as Comreade Jyoti Basu Manch. Throughout the procession, slogans relating to the demands of the suffering toiling people were raised. A feature of the rally was the participation of a big number of workers from the unorganised sector. A majority of them were women workers who outnumbered the men. 

 

The inaugural session started with flag hoisting and floral tributes to the martyrs, after which CZIEA general secretary B Sanyal moved the condolence resolution. Reception committee chairman Rajesh Joshi delivered the welcome address, giving a brief history of Bhopal, while S R Urdhwareshe delivered the presidential address. Basudeb Acharia inaugurated the conference, appreciating the movement of the insurance employees led by AIIEA not only for their own benefit but also for the rights and privileges of the toiling people. AIIEA president Amanullah Khan spoke about the achievements made by nationalised insurance sector in a very difficult situation of global melt-down. He also narrated the benefits of the wage revision achieved by the AIIEA. The latter’s general secretary K Venu Gopal congratulated the insurance employees for protecting the public sector insurance so far in spite of the imperialist designs to dismantle the same for profit mongering. He cautioned the employees to do everything at their command to make the organisation capable of facing any eventualities. He thanked people of this country with whose support it was possible for AIIEA to live up to the expectations of all concerned. 

 

MP CITU general secretary Pramod Pradhan greeted the inaugural session on behalf of the trade union movement in the state. BDIEU general secretary Sarwar Ansari conducted the proceedings.

 

For the delegates session, October 25 to 27, the stage was named after the late Habib Tanwir, a dramatist, writer, actor and director of international fame who was the reception committee chairman for the AIIEA’s Raipur conference in 2003. The general secretary placed the report on behalf of the working committee and treasurer B K Thakur placed the audited statements of accounts of the CZIEA and Andolan ki Khabar. The debate on the report continued for 17 hours, with 33 delegates including 6 women participating. Intervening in the discussion, Amanulla Khan gave an exposition of the AIIEA’s achievements and the tasks before the trade union movement. Shrikant Mishra explained the different aspects of the wage revision.  K Venu Gopal dealt in detail with the twists and turns through which the process of wage revision had to pass through. 

 

The conference adopted 18 resolutions on different issues including the one demanding justice to the Bhopal gas victims. The unanimously elected new working committee has S R Urdhwareshe, B Sanyal and B K Thakur as president, general secretary and treasurer respectively. The conference also elected 35 delegates for the diamond jubilee conference of the AIIEA. The conference gave standing ovation to and relieved G P Chandolkar and S S Solanki after placing on record its appreciation for the services they have rendered as CZIEA vice presidents since its inception. CZIEA joint secretary S K Ghosh proposed the vote of thanks.

 

The CZIEA flag was handed over to the Gwalior divisional unit of CZIEA which will host its eighth conference.