Members of the Joint Committee of Trade Unions (JCTU) took out a procession from Ajjarkad to the founder’s branch of Corporation Bank and held a meeting to protest against what they termed anti-people, anti-labour and anti-farmer policies of the Union government here on Tuesday.
K. Shankar, convener of JCTU, said that the anti-labour policies of the Union government had crushed the workers. These policies only benefited the private sector. The government should increase the minimum wages of the workers to ₹ 18,000 a month.
The common man had to bear the brunt of inflation as the prices of essential commodities had gone through the roof. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had come to power promising to create two crore jobs a year, the fact was that it had only remained a promise. Economic measures such as demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax had resulted in the closure of about two lakh small industries in the country and about 70 lakh people had lot their jobs. While the Union government stated that the Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) had increased by 7 %, the number of jobs created due to this was less than 1 %.
The government was promoting disinvestment of public sector undertakings. This was akin to selling family silver for a song. It had not regularised the services of junior health assistants, mid-day meal workers and anganwadi workers. Instead, it had cut grants by 75 % to anganwadis, while the mid-day meal workers get a paltry salary of ₹ 2,500 a month.
By encouraging private telecom operators, the government was neglecting its own BSNL. The government was promoting privatisation in Defence, telecommunications, Railways and other important sectors.
It was wrong on the part of the Union government to merge the profit-making Vijaya Bank with Dena Bank. By promoting this merger, the government was trying to protect loan defaulters, he said.