Friday, Apr 12, 2002
Friday, Apr 12, 2002 |
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr. Dasgupta who was here in connection with the all-India token strike to mobilise the working class, said that the NDA Government, after coming to power, had taken steps to harass, exploit and marginalise the working class. The interest rates were reduced systematically and the subscribers to Provident Fund were put to a loss. Ever since the economic reforms introduced during P.V. Narasimha Rao's period, 55 lakh workers had lost their jobs and nearly four lakh industrial units were closed, while the creation of additional jobs had declined by 50 per cent, he claimed. The AITUC leader also claimed that conservative estimates had put the decrease in the income of workers during the last three years at two per cent. People were being retrenched without chargesheet and the Government failed to take any action against employers. Actually, the employer was inspired by the "anti-worker policies'' of the Government, he remarked. On top of this, the benefits to workers like subsidised housing and canteen facilities had been brought under the purview of tax now and common people were badly affected. ``On the other hand, the default in payment of Income-Tax in Mumbai alone is estimated at Rs.27,000 crores, while the total I-T evasion in the country is put at Rs.70,000 crores. The Government is allowing the rich to evade taxes. There is no review,'' Mr. Dasgupta said. He criticised the Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, for "shamelessly making the statement that I am not sorry that I have taken such steps.'' This was because Mr. Sinha enjoyed the patronage of multinationals, the AITUC leader alleged. "He has played with Indian finance. Let him play golf or cricket instead. We demand that he resign immediately.'' The Government was so thick-skinned that the Labour Department, which normally invited trade union leaders for negotiations whenever a strike notice was served, did not react now. This only indicated that there was no move to reconcile and, therefore, the trade unions were ready for confrontation, he said. In this context, Mr. Dasgupta appealed to the all-India INTUC president, G. Sanjeeva Reddy, to join the strike along with other trade unions. Though Mr. Reddy sympathised with the working class, he refused to join the strike for reasons best known to him, the AITUC leader said. The strike would be total in six States---West Bengal, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Andhra Pradesh---where even the private sector staff had plans to join the public sector workers in the agitation. After the general strike, there were many proposals before the all-India trade unions, the AITUC leader disclosed. These included `Jail Bharo' satyagraha, mobilising lakhs of workers and people's support to the anti-Government movement and `rasta' and `rail roko' to intensify the agitation.
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