Thursday, May 22, 2003
Thursday, May 22, 2003 |
| Front Page | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Front Page
By Aarti Dhar
The busy central Kolkata, wearing a deserted look due to the 24-hour bandh called by the CITU on Wednesday.
There were reports of stray incidents of lathicharge and arrest of the striking employees who registered their protest against the Centre's economic policies. The banking and insurance sectors were the worst affected across the country. Describing the strike as "historic and the biggest-ever in the country after Independence", the trade unions claimed a resounding success but the Government dismissed it as a "politically-motivated annual ritual of the Left" to make their presence felt. The strike was called to protest privatisation of the profit-making public sector undertakings and oppose changes in the labour laws in favour of employers. It demanded immediate enactment of legislation for agricultural workers. The other demands are scrapping of policies leading to the aggravation of joblessness and unemployment, wider social security schemes for all, particularly those in the unorganised sector, restoration of the quantitative restriction on import, removal of the ceiling on payment of bonus and restoration of the 12 per cent interest rate on Provident Fund deposits were the other demands. The strike was near total in West Bengal and Tripura, it had a good response in Kerala, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand while life in the other States was partially affected. Reports reaching here said that the Left-dominated sectors in oil, power, coal, mining, telecommunications, engineering and textiles saw their workers keeping away from work. Loading and unloading at the docks and ports was also partially affected. Rail and road transport was disrupted in the strike-hit States and two private airlines — Jet Airways and Sahara — suspended their regular flights to and from Kolkata. However, there was no change in the domestic carriers, Indian Airlines and Alliance Air. About 60-lakh State Government employees, including the municipal and panchayat workers, joined the strike. The Central Government employees, owing allegiance to the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, also kept off work. The Reserve Bank Employees Association also took part in the strike. At a joint press conference in the evening, representatives of seven Central trade unions said the strike sent out a clear message to the Government to reverse its policies. "However, they should not take it as the last resort. We will intensify our struggle," said Umraomal Purohit of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha. A democratically-elected Government had a right to draft its economic policies but the Centre had done something that was "injurious to the country as well as the people" and, unfortunately, the Opposition had not been able to play its role, he said. The representatives claimed that police resorted to lathicharge at 16 places and arrested 3,000 activists, including some outside the Supreme Court here for violating prohibitory orders. The Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, said the unions had never approached the Government on their demands. "We received their memorandum and their decision to go in for the strike but they never asked us to discuss the matter." In fact, the Government was looking into the possibility of increasing the ceiling on bonus and was making all efforts to give the best returns to the Provident Fund contributors. Denying that the Prime Minister had refused to meet the unions as claimed by them, Mr. Verma said the representatives had made it clear that they would go ahead with the strike irrespective of their meeting with Mr. Vajpayee. The striking trade unions include the AICCTU, the AITUC, the CITU, the HMS, the TUCC, the UTUC and the UTUC-LS and independent unions and federations. The INTUC and the BMS backed out at the last-minute describing the strike as "anti-national".
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
