Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 2: On International Labour Day, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) held an impressive rally at Polo Ground here.
While addressing the rally, CITU State president, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami lamented that Trade Union Movement has always been ignored by the Government. Since long there has been a nexus between management, bureaucracy and police to suppress the working class. Wherever there are legitimate demands of the working class, this nexus in the name of law-and-order harassed the workers and their representatives and deprived them the right of collective bargaining. This has reached to crescendo since the incumbent BJP Government took over five years back, he added.
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BJP led Government is trying to erode the rights of the working people which had been achieved through their hard struggles. In the name of reform and benefit to the Corporate Sector, the Government is hell bent to disarm the working class of their legitimate rights for better working conditions, he added.
He said the labour laws are not being implemented properly and even the minimum wages are denied to workers working in different sectors, he said. The Supreme Court direction for equal-work-equal-pay is not being implemented. Construction workers working in different projects (in private as well as Government Sector) have been left to fend for themselves as authorities are least bothered about their welfare, he added.
Tarigami alleged that the long and genuine demands of scheme workers, particularly ASHA and other NRHM workers, including Rs 10,000 as fixed wages, covering them under health insurance scheme, enhancement of ANC upto Rs 350, accidental cover to the tune of Rs three lakh, have not been fulfilled so far. Similarly, the demands of Anganwari workers and helpers of social security benefits, including gratuity, pension, Provident Fund, medical facilities etc have not been met. Recently the Government had announced enhancement of Rs 500 per month to their wages, but that too is pending, he added.
He said the inflation during the incumbent BJP Government has broken the backbone of working class. He also highlighted the significance of May Day.
Another rally was held by Low Paid Employees Federation under the leadership of its president Abdul Majid Khan in which the problems of working class were highlighted and rich tributes were paid to martyrs in Chicago. The LPEF leaders Javed Ahmed Shah and others also addressed the rally.
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