Karnal: Contractual employees take out rally, seek Rs 26K minimum wage

Karnal, October 8

Hundreds of labourers, contractual employees and others attended a state-level ‘Mazdoor Lalkar Rally’ that was organised by the Haryana state committees of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU).

To again protest on October 18

• Leaders of the two unions announced that they would protest outside the residences of various ministers of the state government on October 18
• The protest will be held in support of ASHA workers, who have been protesting across the state since August 8
• Besides, they would hold a three-day protest from November 26 to 28 in Chandigarh

The protesters from across the state assembled at the HSVP ground in Sector 12 here. They demanded that the minimum wages should be raised to Rs 26,000, scheme workers and contractual workers should be regularised and anti-worker labour codes and contract system should be cancelled. They also demanded 200 days of work and Rs 600 daily wages under the MGNREGA scheme.

CITU national secretary AR Sindhu and AIAWU national general secretary A Vijay Raghavan criticised the government for not paying heed to their demands and later handed over a memorandum to the duty magistrate.

They urged the government to register all the workers in the Construction Workers’ Welfare Board and provide a guarantee of 100-yard plots for housing and grants for the construction of houses for labourers, a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 for labourers and farmers. They also demanded that loans of all labourers and poor farmers should be waived and BPL cards should be made of all needy people, besides a guarantee of MSP on all crops and separate law for the social security of farm labourers.