Kolkata: Three officials from the I&C department met nine technicians on Friday evening. The technicians described the meeting as “positive” and “fruitful”, which led to a pause in the protest march that members of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India had scheduled for Sunday. The protest was initially called to address the current lawlessness in Tollywood and the new norms set by the Eastern India Motion Pictures and Cultural Confederation.Production controller Jayanta Kundu said three officials from the I&CA dept – Soumitra Mohan, Krittibas Nayak and Sharmistha Banerjee – met nine technicians, including Sommath Kundu, Hena Munshi, Nirupam Dey, Abhishek Saha, Sangram Karmakar, Swapan Majumdar, Rajiv Pal and Animesh Ganguly at Nandan. “We are happy and optimistic after the meeting with the officials,” said National Award-winning makeup artist Somnath Kundu. “The march has been called off,” said Munshi who has worked in over 400 films in Tollywood as a hair dresser.Jayanta Kundu condemned the way some producers are exploiting this instability to cheat technicians out of fair pay and even withhold TDS payments. “The disregard for standard work hours is a direct consequence of an organization left without a guardian. We requested the govt to form a working committee to oversee Federation operations until official elections can be held. This committee must be monitored by an IAS officer, who will also appoint an observer to ensure that all guilds that have yet to hold elections conduct a fair and transparent voting process. Another meeting has been called on Monday,” he said.The conflict between the Federation and the Confederation remains the primary concern. During the meeting, officials were alerted to a security breach involving the unauthorized use of the Federation’s email address to communicate with Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA). “This fraudulent correspondence falsely claimed that the Federation will operate under the leadership of Confederation. It also mandated that all shooting permissions be directed to the latter, a directive that is entirely illegal. We want the government to investigate who from the state government granted permission to the Confederation, which is a private limited company with shareholders, to list the Technicians’ Studio as one of its official addresses,” Kundu added.
