Welfare Board for hamali, beedi, transport workers sought

CITU called upon all the workers to gear up for strike on September 19 seeking minimum wages

Hanamkonda: The leaders of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) have demanded the State government to establish a Welfare Board for hamalis, beedi and transport workers.

There are nearly 40 lakh workers in unorganised sector and their welfare needs to be taken care of, the CITU state general secretary M Saibabu told presspersons in Hanamkonda on Sunday.

He also wanted to streamline the functioning of Telangana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board. The board established in 2014 is not functioning properly and hundreds of crores of funds allocated to it were being misused.

As per the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the salaries of workers serving different industries have to be revised for five years, it was not done for the past several years. A GO must be issued revising minimum wages to benefit nearly 75 lakh employees working in private industries, schools, colleges, hospitals.

Saibabu urged the government to rise its voice against the new GST regime during the meeting of finance ministers scheduled to be held in Hyderabad in next month. Due to the new tax regime, several industries were being closed rendering lakhs of people jobless.

CITU state secretary Pothuraju Jayalakshmi felt that offering sarees to women marking Bathukamma festival would not make them happy. The government needs to enhance the wages of thousands of women working at anganwadis and for implementation of 83 schemes under various departments.

The government must ensure safety of women scheme workers; extend PF, ESI and maternity leave benefits to them. Despite agitations for the past several years, the successive governments have failed to address their issues, she complained.

Earlier on the day, addressing the union leaders and members, the CITU state president Chukka Ramulu alleged that the faulty policies adopted by CM K Chandrashekar Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were leading to unemployment. Demonetisation, GST regime and reforms by the centre were proving to be detrimental to the economy of the nation. The ruling parties which failed to address public issues were trying to divide them on the lines of caste and religion in a bid to suppress them. Contract, outsourcing employees were suspecting the government’s honesty in regularising their jobs.

The CITU leaders called upon the workers to gear up for the strike on September 19 to ensure Rs 18,000 minimum wage for all the workers. Mandal and district wise meetings, rallies should be conducted to make the strike a success. CITU leaders Ragula Ramesh, K Yada Naik, R Sudhabhasker, P Raja Rao, P Bhasker, S Rama, J Venkatesh, G Venkat and others were present.