The CPI(ML) on Sunday demanded Rs 26,000 minimum monthly wages, as well as, better social security and working conditions for the working classes across the country.
The party also asserted that the workers engaged in various sectors were the worst sufferers under the present central government, and announced its plan to struggle for the workers engaged in various sectors.
The announcement was made by senior leaders on the fifth day of the ongoing 11th national congress of the party in Patna.
“Currently we have around 50 lakh enrolled members among the working classes. These include rural workers, those working in the unorganised sectors, urban workers, sanitation workers, those engaged in government schemes, tea-garden workers and others. We are also trying to unite government contractual employees. There is a need for the agitation of the working classes against the pro-corporate, fascist government,” CPI(ML) politburo member and All India Agricultural Rural Labour Association (AIARLA) general secretary Dhirendra Jha said.
Speaking on the occasion, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) general secretary Rajiv Dimri pointed out that the BJP–led government at the Centre was making all-out efforts for privatisation and selling off public resources to push the workers into slavery under the corporates by systematically eroding social security and welfare boards.
“The seventh pay commission constituted by the Centre had recommended Rs 16,000 per month as minimum wage a few years ago. We now demand Rs 26,000 per month minimum wage in light of sharp inflation. AICCTU, which has 10 central trade unions as its members, will agitate for it. We are going to organise marches and sectoral conventions across the country from the next month,” Dimri said.
“We will organise a mahadharna (big sit-in protest) around August 8 — the day the Quit India Movement was launched in 1942 and follow it up with a multiple-day strike at the end of the year. We will also demand social security schemes and the old pension scheme,” Dimri added.
The CPI(ML) leaders pointed out that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has called for a labour conference in every country, but it has been held only once in the nine-year rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They also discussed how the Modi government was planning to bring new labour codes to make the formation of trade or labour unions and going on strike very difficult. On the other hand, it was going to waive off jail terms for various omissions by the owners of the enterprises.
All India Scheme Workers Federation national convener Shashi Yadav and Indian Railway Employees Federation general secretary Kamal Usri also spoke on the occasion.
Winter rain deficit hits rabi crops in Jharkhand
Ranchi: Farmers in Jharkhand, who are yet to recover from the losses incurred during the kharif season drought, are staring at uncertainty again amid the acute winter rain deficit which is adversely affecting rabi crops, said officials.
The state received a mere 0.3mm of rainfall against the normal average of 41.3mm from November 1 to February 16, according to the weather department. “Jharkhand faced a 100 per cent rain deficit in November, January and February. In December, the deficit was 96 per cent,” said an official.
PTI
