CITU to fight against pruning Central staff

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 31. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today announced its resolve to fight tooth and nail the NDA Government's proposal to downsize Central Government and public sector undertakings by 10 per cent.

Addressing a public meeting at the Nizam College grounds here, the CITU president, Mr. E. Balanandam, and the general secretary, Mr. A. K. Pandhe, recalled the NDA's election manifesto promising one crore new jobs and providing employment to one person in each family. But, he said, the Vajpayee-led regime was doing exactly the opposite and appeared bent upon displacing one crore people from their jobs and rendering at least one member of each family jobless.

The public meeting and the huge rally earlier marked the culmination of the five-day 10th conference of CITU which was attended by 2,800 delegates from all over the country besides guests from France, Australia, Japan, the Philippines and SAARC countries. A feature of the meeting was the sharp attack launched by CITU and CPI(M) leaders against the A. P. Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, whom they portrayed as a symbol of all that was wrong with the Indian economy.

The former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr. Jyoti Basu, who could not attend the meeting due to sudden indisposition, said in a message that the Telugu Desam Party by supporting the NDA Government and adopting a lukewarm attitude towards communal forces was committed to all misdeeds of the BJP.

Stating that drought conditions were prevailing in several parts of the State, Mr. Basu, who is also CITU vice- president, observed that the Chandrababu Naidu Government appeared totally unconcerned with the sufferings of the people and continued to talk only about hi-tech matters in collaboration with the multinational companies. Other CITU leaders targeted the power sector reforms undertaken by the TDP Government and the killing of two CPI(M) workers and one Congress follower during the agitation against the power tariff hike in Hyderabad on October 28.

Mr. Balanandam said that NDA Government's single biggest agenda was to cut the workforce in banks, the insurance industry and by at least 10 per cent as quickly as possible so as to benefit capitalists.

Highlighting the plight of peasantry in AP, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka due to unremunerative prices for agricultural products, the CITU president attributed this unhappy situation to the Centre's policy of allowing agricultural imports.

Mr. Pandhe said the NDA Government was so keen on attracting foreign capital that it was prepared to change labour laws to suit the MNCs.

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Section  : Southern States
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