LEFT-AFFILIATED UNIONS MANUFACTURING PROTESTS, SAYS JAITLEY
HITTING OUT Says protests manufactured over non-existent issues
NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday accused Left-affiliated trade unions of manufacturing a protest on non-existent issues, even as West Bengal and Kerala saw sporadic cases of violence and traffic disruptions on the second day of protests by workers.
“If the Left trade unions insist on politicising the trade union movement to manufacture a protest on non-existent issues, it is for the workmen in the country to seriously analyse what the present government has done for them and compare it with the relatively blank record of several earlier governments,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post on the second day of the ‘Bharat Bandh’ organised by 10 central trade unions to protest against alleged anti-labour policies of the Centre.
In Kolkata, protesters threw stones at vehicles that resulted in the injury of a school student. Five people were arrested over the incident. Two people were also arrested in the East Burdwan district for protests that turned violent.
A treasury branch of the State Bank of India in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram was attacked and trains were blocked in various parts of state. At many places, shops and commercial establishments remained shut, and buses and auto-rickshaws were also off roads.
Listing out the steps taken by the NDA regime for the welfare of workers, Jaitley said no government in the past had taken, within a short period, so many continuous pro-worker decisions in order to ensure that the advantage of a better quality of life is ensured to them as a result of the economic development of the country.
“Even though procedural simplifications have been done in several legislations in order to cut down the paper work, the government has desisted from taking any decision which hurts the interest of the employees,” he said.
The call for the two-day bandh was given by 10 central trade unions that have been protesting the government’s snub of their 12-point charter of demands seeking minimum wage of ₹18,000, social security for all workers and issues related to price rise.
All trade unions, except the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, extended support to the strike called against the “anti-labour policies of the Centre”.