Condemns “anti-worker and anti-people policies” pursued by Union, State governments
The State unit of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has given a call for ‘Bengaluru Chalo’ on September 4 to press the Union and State governments to concede its long-pending demands. The programme was also to protest against the “anti-worker and anti-people policies” pursued by both the governments.
Addressing press persons here on Monday, H.V. Ananta Subbarao, president of AITUC, strongly criticised the BJP-led NDA government for bringing in amendments to the labour laws in a bid to curtail the rights of the working class and depriving them of social security and other retirement benefits, disinvestment in profit-making public sector undertakings, and overburdening the common man by imposing taxes,among other things.
“Narendra Modi came to power promising ‘achche din’ by rooting out corruption and black money. But the results are nil as all the announcements made were without a proper study. Mr. Modi also toured several countries, which no other Prime Minister did in the past, to get foreign investment and till now he has not spelt out the outcome on one hand and was not able to establish cordial relationships with neighbouring countries on the other. Demonetisation had only shrunk industrial growth, affecting employment generation. Above all, the ‘make in India’ announcement was a big flop”, he said.
Mr. Ananta Subbarao also sought to know why the Union government, which took a decision to waive hefty loans of the corporate sector, was hesitating to take a decision to waive farm loans and save farmers. He charged the Modi government with subverting the essence of the Constitution for consolidating Hindu votes which, according to him, was very dangerous to the country. “To divert the attention of the public to cover up its failure, the Modi government has been raking up controversies about cow slaughtering, Hinduism and the like, which was very unfortunate.”
Mr. Subbarao urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to implement minimum wages, and provide retirement benefits and compensation in case of accidents for workers in the unorganised sector, among other social security benefits.
H.K. Ramachandrappa, executive president, and Adimurthy, Channappa and Kantaiah were among other leaders present.