Himachal’s Budget not in line with workers’ aspirations, says CITU

Mandi, February 18

CITU district president Bhupender Singh and General Secretary Rajesh Sharma, in a joint statement, said the budget proposal presented in the HP Assembly yesterday by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was against the aspirations of workers of the state.

Ex-Servicemen ignored

There are over 1,60,000 ESM and Veer Naris in the state and many are gallantry awardees but they are paid less allowances in Himachal Pradesh than neighbouring states such as Punjab, Haryana, and Union Territory Chandigarh. ESMs did not get the same attention as Olympic awardees, for whom there is allocation in budget. — Captain Jagdish Chand Verma (retd)

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“In a time of high inflation, increasing the daily wage of workers by only Rs 25, not giving the minimum wage of Rs 400 to MGNREGA workers and not giving minimum wage to Anganwadi, Mid-Day Meal programme and Asha workers are examples of this. The increase in wages of water carriers, water guards, multi-purpose workers, para-fitters, pump operators, watchmen, revenue watchmen and Panchayat Veterinary Assistants by only Rs 300-500 and not paying them the minimum wage declared by the government is a cruel joke with these workers. The increase in the salaries of outsourced workers, tailoring teachers, SMC teachers, IT teachers and SPOs is nominal and the government not making any concrete policy for them is extremely worrying,” the statement read.

“This budget is silent on the 40 per cent wage increase for industrial workers, compliance with labour laws, and their SOP and safety rules. The silence on the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme for corporations and boards is against the government’s own promise of guarantees. This budget is not a budget to alleviate the miseries of labourers and employees, but just an attempt to get votes in the Lok Sabha elections by increasing wages nominally. The government needs to increase the minimum wage as per the price index,” the statement added.

Janwadi Naujawan Sabha state secretary Mahender Singh Rana said unemployment was a major issue in Himachal. The interests of youths were ignored in the budget, which was a cause of concern, he added.

Captain Jagdish Chand Verma (retd) said, “The Ex-Serviceman community was ignored in the budget. In the budget, no allocation of fund has been done except the meagre hike of Rs 2,000 per month (from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000), a financial help to those defence retirees not getting any kind of pension. This shows that the ESMs and Veer Naris have been neglected in the budget presented by the current government.”

“There are over 1,60,000 ESM and Veer Naris in the state and many are gallantry awardees but they are paid less allowances in Himachal Pradesh than neighbouring states such as Punjab, Haryana, and union territory Chandigarh. ESMs did not get attention with the Olympic awardees, to whom there is allocation in budget,” he added.

“The 15 per cent reservation in government jobs for the ESM community is also on paper and not implemented in the correct perspective. Beneficiaries are not getting opportunities to get government jobs. Additionally, the wards of ESM also meet the same fate due to apathy of successive state governments,” Captain Verma added.

Vijay Pal Singh, the Congress leader from Seraj, and Congress Spokesperson (Kullu) Rajeev Kimta said the budget was to benefit the common people of the state.

Rajat Thakur, state co-media in-charge of the BJP said on one hand, the budget of state government was not up to the expectations of the people, while on the other hand, Public Works Department Minister Vikramaditya Singh raised questions on the budget. For the first time in the history of the state, it was seen that a government minister was unhappy with the budget presented by his Chief Minister and vented his anger on social media, demanding amendments to it, he added.

Rajat said the government could not even fulfil the announcements made in last year’s budget. This time too, most of the announcements made in the previous budget had been repeated, he added. The most surprising thing was that the guarantees on which Congress came to power were not even mentioned in this budget, Thakur said.