Brinda Karat asks TTD to stop exploitation of forest workers

Tirupati: CPM senior leader and party politburo member Brinda Karat urged the TTD management to stop exploitation of labour in their institution.

The CPM leader expressing solidarity to the TTD Forest Workers, who are on a relay hunger strike for the last 300 days to press the management for regularisation of contract employees in the department, visited the hunger strike camp on Hare Krishna Road, here on Sunday.

It was unjust for a religious institutions like TTD despite having huge deposit of Rs 14,000 crore in banks, 8 tonnes gold and thousands of crores annual income to deny proper wages to its workers and exploiting them for years the workers, she said criticising the TTD apathy in fulfilling the demands of the forest workers protesting for long.

Stating that the Supreme Court long back expounded 'Equal pay for equal work,' she said the TTD which has no qualms in splurging its funds in the name of many fancy schemes to ensure justice to the workers working for just Rs 10,000 monthly, risking their lives. Reminding Chief Minister Y S jagan Mohan Reddy assurance when he was in opposition to the Forest workers to regularise their services if his party comes to power, she criticised the CM for failing to keep his assurance. It was shameful on the part of Jagan Mohan Reddy government which has time to appoint a jumbo trust board with 81 members for TTD ignoring the sentiments of devotees and unmindful of burden on TTD but no time to look into the issues of the employees, she said slamming the government and TTD management remaining silent on TTD forest workers issue.

CITU district general secretary K Murali informed that the CITU will organise a big rally and protest on Monday to press the TTD to immediately resolve the workers issue, as per the previous TTD board decision to extend time scale to all the workers in the forest department. AIDWA state secretary D Ramadevi, CPM leaders V Nagaraj, S Jayachandra and others were present.