CITU stages protest rally, lambasts NDA

Musheerabad: As part of the two-day nationwide general strike called by central labour unions and employee association federations on January 8 & 9, the CITU committee of Musheerabad constituency conducted a rally from Golconda Cross Roads to RTC Cross Roads on Wednesday. City secretary of CITU M Venkatesh and vice-president M Srinivas participated in the rally.

Addressing the protesters, M Venkatesh said that the central government led by PM Narendra Modi had been aggressively following anti-people and anti-labour policies for the last four-and-a-half years. Protesting against policies of central government, labour unions called two nationwide strikes in the years 2015 and 2016 and staged a Maha Dharna before parliament with lakhs of people on November 9-11 in 2017. These apart, farmers had staged several protests across the nation. Despite several protests by labour and farmers, the central government turned blind eye towards them and is in cahoots with corporate such as Adani and Ambani, he alleged.

The government has also failed to address important public issues such as rising prices, unemployment, non-implementation of minimum wages and equal work and equal pay, banning contract system, weak civil distribution systems, lack of social security to unorganized and agriculture labour, lack of social security and improper labour laws. Furthermore, it has been inciting religious violence and usurping fundamental rights. With the introduction of demonetisation and GST, many industries were shut down and lakhs of people lost their jobs, Venkatesh said. Although fuel prices have come down at international level, BJP government has been increasing the fuel price, resulting in price rise of essential commodities. The demand to raise minimum wages to Rs 18,000 per month by labour unions in wake of rising prices has been ignored by the government.

He lambasted the central government for not implementing the Supreme Court ruling on equal pay to equal work even after two years of the ruling. The government is also not ready to recognise about one crore employees who have been implementing various central government schemes. He criticised the BJP government for playing havoc with public sector companies in connivance with corporate companies. Shares of Navaratna public sector companies have been sold to private companies for dirt cheap, he alleged.

Criticizing the recent amendments in labour laws, Vekatesh alleged that BJP government is amending the labour laws, which have been result of long struggle, in favour of company managements. With slogans such as ‘make in India’, the government is encouraging ‘hire and fire’ methods and are conspiring to make labour as slaves of managements, he said. He also condemned a manner in which Rs 24 lakh crores which were saved by employees under provident funds and ESI, have been deliberately transferred to share market.

Musheerabad CITU city leader M Dasharath called upon labour unions and workers to participate in the struggle against anti-labour policies of the central government and make the nationwide strike successful. CITU Musheerabad leaders K Ramesh, R Vani, MD Sirajuddin, MD Jakir, P Vimala, A Padma, A Sriramulu, N Yellaiah, L Bhavani, Yadamma, Chandrakala and others participated in the rally.