THE 11th conference of Bank Employees Federation of India - Tamilnadu held at Coimbatore from March 25- 27, 2016 has been a milestone in the bank employees’ movement of this part of the country.

The reception committee constituted on January 24, 2016 under the chairmanship of P R Natarajan, former MP has done an excellent job in taking care of the delegates and observers and providing a pleasant atmosphere for the smooth conduct of the conference.

On March 25, the eighth special women’s conference was held for the first time as a whole day conference. P Suganthi, Tamilnadu state secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, was the chief guest. S Premalatha, convener presented the report. 138 women and 100 men comrades took part in the conference. 18 women delegates took part in the deliberations. Three resolutions including the one demanding 33 percent reservation for women in the parliament and state assemblies were adopted. In the end, C P Krishnan, general secretary BEFI-TN made his concluding address.

 The open session of the conference was presided over by T Thamizharasu, state president of BEFI. A K Padmanabhan, CITU president, inaugurated the conference. C J Nandakumar, president, BEFI and M Girija, joint secretary, AIIEA greeted the conference.

In the delegate session that followed 226 delegates and 111 observers took part. On the report of the Executive Committee, 38 comrades spoke for 5 hours. In the end, the report was adopted unanimously. The statement of accounts for the period, the constitutional amendment and 18 resolutions were adopted. The advisors of BEFI-TN – MSN Rao, Rajagopalan Nair, former state general secretary of BEFI,  A Rengarajan and Srinivasa Babu, vice president, BEFI greeted the delegate session.

On March 26th evening there was a special seminar addressed by U Vasuki (vice president, AIDWA) on gender equality, Venkatesh B Athreya (eminent economist) on the path of the Indian Economy, K Krishnan (secretary, BEFI) on the future of the public sector banks and U K Sivagnanam (deputy general secretary, Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front) on the eradication of untouchability and the communal harmony. This was presided over by T Thamizharasu.

The trainers of the Ambedkar Education and Employment Coaching Centre, its co-ordinator, K Ganesh, the students who secured employment and the Coimbatore district secretary, Maheswaran were honoured in the conference.

A new team of office bearers with T Thamizharau as president, C P Krishnan as general secretary, E Vivekanandan as treasurer were elected. MSN Rao, V Rajagopalan Nair and A Rengarajan were elected as advisors. A women subcommittee with 18 women comrades was constituted with S Premalatha as convenor.

The newly elected general secretary C P Krishnan thanked the reception committee and the volunteers who were responsible for successful conduct of the conference. With the slogans and recital of international song the conference concluded.