People's Democracy

Comrade K Adinarayana

VETERAN trade union leader Comrade K Adinarayana passed away on June 11, 2003, at Kamineni hospital in Hyderabad. He was admitted in the hospital and has been under treatment for severe respiratory illness for the last one month.

Comrade K Adinarayana was a tall leader of the Postal & Telegraph trade union movement and served as the secretary-general of the National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE), the biggest- federation amongst the central government organisations for well over a decade. He rose to limelight by taking charge as the general secretary of All India Postal Employees Union, Postmen & Group D in 1968 which he held for long span of twenty eight years: He was instrumental in making the NFPE the most militant organisation among central government employees organisations.

Comrade K Adinarayana had participated in the Telengana movement and was arrested and put under concentration camp in the open skies with barbed-wire fencing. He later joined the P&T Department as a casual labourer and plunged himself into trade union activity. He led many strikes and struggles for securing the interests of the workers, unmindful of the consequences.

The CITU secretariat in a statement expressed deep shock at the passing away of Comrade Adinarayana. It stated that he played an important role in building a strong organisation of the central government employees, particularly of the postal employees and in bringing them into the mainstream trade union movement. Stating that his death is an irreversible loss to the postal and central government employees’ movement in particular and to the trade union movement in general, the CITU paid its respectful homage to the memory of Comrade Adinarayana and conveyed its heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved family.

CPI(M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat, E Balanandan have in separate messages condoled the death of Comrade Adinarayana.

Veteran CPI(M) leader Samar Mukherjee, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Koratala Satyanarayana, CPI(M) AP state secretary B V Raghavulu, CITU AP state secretary S Veeraiah, NFPE secretary general C C Pillai, BSNL Employees Union general secretary V A N Namboodiri and many other leaders paid homage to the departed leader in Hyderabad.

The funeral took place at Secunderabad on June 18 at 4 p m and was attended by hundreds of trade union and Party activists and workers.