The United Draft placed before
the Honourable President (Central Government) by the platform of United Working
Class which is the only way out of the crisis of economy deepened further by
the Pandemic! -
24th July, 2020
Shri Ram Nath Kovind
Hon’ble President of India,
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
President’s Estate ,New Delhi,
Delhi 110004
Respected Sir,
We
hopefully place on record the following few facts which are agitating the
toiling people of the country.
1. The sudden, unplanned national lockdown imposed by the Government
of India and its administration, statedly on account of COVID – 19 pandemic,
catastrophically affected the working people, the migrant workers amongst them
being the worst hit. That they simply had no life support became clear as the
days passed. Even the "advisories" issued belatedly by the Ministry
of Labour, the Ministry of Home Affairs did not help, in fact they were
withdrawn by the government without being implemented.
2. The health system was exposed to be woefully inadequate-the
private hospitals either simply refused to cap the rates, as appealed by the
government, for treatment of Covid patients, stating they were uneconomical or
simply closed doors. The ventilators, PPEs, sanitizer required were in extreme
short supply. Only the public health system-the public hospitals, their
doctors, their staff, the health scheme workers(ASHA Workers), anganwadi
workers, the municipal sanitation workers worked tirelessly, risking their own
lives including being affected and even lost lives and won everyone's
admiration and gratitude. It were the Ordnance Factory workers who swung into
action to produce the much needed ventilators and PPEs. The much touted private
enterprise failed completely.
3. Then the attention turned towards putting the wheels of the
economy back on rails. The steps taken in this regard by the government defy
all logic and the past experience as well as the advice of renowned Indian
economists. The economy was already in recession from prior to the onset of the
pandemic and was due to majority of Indian people lacking even the minimum
purchasing power. It was necessary to put money in their hands. The sudden
lockdown compounded the problem.
Yet what is being done? The increase in DA of government employees and
DR of pensioners is withheld, Labour laws, including many of Hon'ble Supreme
Court’s judgments on Equal Pay for Equal Work, are flouted mostly, with
inspection being curtailed in the name of “ease of doing business”. Now even
the Labour Laws, in whatever form they exist, were sought to be suspended for
1000 or more days through executive orders/Ordinances in many states, (The ILO
had to remind the government of its commitment to various ILO Conventions), a
slew of public sector enterprises were opened for privatisation, 100% FDI,
ranging from blue chip companies such as the BPCL, LIC, Coal India, Electricity
Sector, Ordnance Factories, the Railways, train routes as well as their
manufacturing/repair workshops, airports, all during the continuing lockdown.
Migrant Workers were actually sought to be prevented from going back to their
villages by vested interests in the private sector. Their helpless crowding of
stations was treated as law and order issue! The Hon'ble Supreme Court had to
intervene to direct the government to handle the issue humanely and with top
priority. Agriculture is pushed to corporatization through Ordinances. The
Rs.20 lac crore package announced is once again Supply-side move rather than the
necessary Demand-side push. Repeated Demands by the entire trade union movement
for direct income-support and adequate food-support to all poor and
non-income-tax-paying households is being arrogantly ignored.
4. Now it is coming to light that the ASHA Workers, who did the
crucial Corona surveys, have not been paid at all! State governments have not
been paid their share of GST. The income tax paying social strata has not been
roped in to share the burden, but the non-income tax paying people are further burdened
with relentless price increase of petrol and diesel. While
GDP figures are bandied about as a measure of “national progress”,
the question of equitable distribution is plainly ignored.
5. The entire trade union movement of the country has time and again
raised these issues with the concerned ministries, through representations,
demonstrations and even sectoral strikes. But the government is totally
unresponsive. It has not even convened the Indian Labour Conference, the top
most tripartite body in the country, in spite of repeated requests, since 2015.
In view of above points and issues, we the undersigned, urge you, as
the Constitutional Head of the Government of India for the following reliefs:-
To direct Central and State Governments:-
1. To adequately compensate
the dependents of those migrant workers, who lost their lives due to sudden
lockdown effected from 12 Midnight of 25th March, 2020;
2. To provide free ration to all non-income- tax-paying people for the next six
months, irrespective of whether they hold any ration card;
3. To pay every non-income- tax-paying person Rs.7500/- pm for the next six
months; and pension of Rs.3000/-pm linked to cost of living to all above 60
years of age;
4. To issue Smart Id Card to all the workers with their Aadhar card number
valid throughout India which should be useful for social security benefits;
5. To provide a corpus of Rs.10000 crores – a revolving annual FUND for the
purpose of implementing Social Security Schemes under the provisions of Un-organised
Sector Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008;
6. To withdraw the proposed move of the Government to convert the 41 Ordnance
Factories into a corporation and then to privatise the same and to convert the
Army Base Workshops to GOCO Model by handing over these Workshops to Private
Sector;
7. To withdraw move for Corporatisation of Railway Production Units and handing
over 109 Railway routes to private Sector and privatization of railway
stations;
8. To cancel the Privatisation of Public Sector enterprises and Services
including State Transport, LIC, Banks, Insurance, Coal, BPCL, Air India,
Airports, Telecom, Ports & Dock and Municipal services etc.
9. To put on hold any labour law amendments through codification of all labour
laws in to four codes and to convene Indian Labour Conference immediately;
scrap all the Ordinances and executive orders altering and/or suspending
operation of labour laws in many states.
10. To Invest in and expand health, education and agriculture; scrap all the
three Ordinances on Agriculture including on amendment of Essential Commodities
Act.
11. To increase budgetary allocation for effective implementation of National
Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, increasing the job allocation for 200
days per annum and extend the similar scheme for urban areas also to address
the issue of unemployment on war footing. The daily wage should be enhanced
from Rs. 202/- to Rs. 500/-.
12. To launch drive to recover loans from Willful Defaulters, by using criminal
prosecution.
Yours sincerely,
INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC
TUCC SEWA AICCTU. LPF UTUC
