Karnataka - Bangalore

Set up a fund for workers affected by global meltdown, says V.J.K. Nair

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

PLAIN FACTS: CPI(M) State secretary V.J.K. Nair releasing booklet on ‘Global financial crisis and its implication for India’ in Bangalore on Wednesday. CITU district secretary Prasanna Kumar is at right.

Bangalore: The Government should float special funds to help workers who have lost their jobs because of the global economic crisis such as those in the mining industries, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary V.J.K. Nair.

Speaking after launching a booklet on the crisis and its implications for India here on Wednesday, published by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), he said the mining industry had made huge profits during the boom period. The profit should be shared with workers who had created the wealth, but now found themselves in deep distress, he added. The belief that the work force should refrain from making any demands at a time like this was flawed, he said.

Mr. Nair said the impact of the economic meltdown had been relatively less severe on India because public sector undertakings continued to sustain the economy.

A large number of banks in India had uncompromisingly fought privatisation efforts and public sector industries continued be the mainstay of the Government’s revenue, he added.

The present situation proved wrong those who advocated withdrawal of the Government from all sectors and allowing unbridled freedom to the financial capital.

S. Prasanna Kumar, CITU State secretary, said the present crisis strongly drove home the need to have a production-based economic model rather than one based on speculative market. This should open the Indian Government’s eyes to the disasters that could result from linking the Provident Fund to the share market through The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill (PFRDA).

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