Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Oct 18: President of the district committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), K Shankar, informed at a press conference held at the Press Club here on Monday October 18, that the unorganized workers from all over the state will take part in the ‘Vidhana Soudha Chalo’ protest being held in Bangalore on Wednesday October 20.
“The protest is being held against the negligent attitude of the state government towards the burning problems plaguing the unorganized sector. A procession of workers will be taken out from the Bangalore railway station to Vidhana Soudha on that day, as decided by the state committee,” he said.
Accusing the government of losing its precious time in corruption, nepotism, illegal mining and illegal land grabbing and not caring to give a sympathetic hearing to the problems facing the unorganized sector, he said that neither the Chief Minister, nor the labour minister, is interested in holding a dialogue with labour organizations.
The main demands of the agitators are, fixing of a minimum wage of Rs 6,000 (Rs 10,000 in Bangalore) for all the workers, issuance of notification fixing minimum wage for bidi workers, distribution of 35 kgs of rice per month at Rs 2 per kg to every family as announced by the BJP in its election manifesto, banning of contract labour system, extending social security to all workers, taking effective steps to contain inflation, providing of houses/sites to all workers, payment of pension even to anganwadi workers, and withdrawal of false cases registered against labour leaders and activists on September 15, 2009.
CITU leaders, Admar Sripati Acharya and Ramesh Mendon, were present.