Tag: Central-government

Bihar: Labourers, Women Scheme Workers Hit the Streets on Bharat Bandh.

Source –

Patna: The countrywide strike, called by 10 central trade unions and independent forums, was seen in nearly all districts of Bihar.

Unions that participated in the strike included All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), and Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS).

Workers and activists gathered at Patna’s Dak Bungla Chowk and raised slogans against the government’s anti-people policies.

The protesters included midday meal workers, ASHA workers, non-gazetted employees, contractual workers, MGNREGA workers and transport unionists.

Bihar State Auto Union general secretary Raj Kumar Jha, told The Wire that the strike went well thanks to the presence of lorry and bus drivers, auto rickshaw drivers and also petrol pump workers. “Our focus was to put up resistance against the anti-worker polices of both state and central government which includes ban of diesel auto from March 31, 2020,” he added.

Saroj Chaubey, state secretary of the Bihar Mid Day Meal Workers organisation, said districts of Patna, Samastipur, Ara, Munger, Saharsa, East Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Nawada and Jehanabad saw good mass mobilisation. “People raised slogans such as pandrah sau main dum nahin, ikkis hazaar se kam nahi which means that there is no strength in Rs 1,500 and we demand no less than Rs 21,000,” he said.

Accredited Social Health Workers (ASHA) workers and Anganwadi workers demanded ‘worker’ status to all scheme workers who by virtue of not being officially categorised as ‘workers’, do not come under most of the labour laws in the country.

CITU state leader Arun Kumar Mishra said, “The Bihar chapter of all India strike went extremely well with coordination of all the trade unions and the support from the common man. The outburst against policies such as CAA-NRC of the government was visible. Issues of massive unemployment, price rise, distortion of labour laws and unprecedented sale of public sector and mergers of banks have led to mass eruption.”

All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) Bihar leader Ashok Singh said the rural workforce showed full participation with no supply or restricted supply of vegetables to the mandis of local areas and nearby towns. Construction workers were also seen in huge numbers statewide.

MGNREGA workers claimed to not have been given their wages since months. Nor are there enough jobs for them, they said.

Premchand Kumar Sinha, a leader of Bihar Non-Gazetted Employees Federation (Gope Group), said government employees joined the workers’ strike in large numbers to express their anger in districts of Darbhanga, Buxar, Gaya, East-West Champaran, Ara, Samastipur, Saharsa, and Muzaffarpur,

Rannvijay, general secretary of the AICCTU, claimed that Patna town alone had participation of more than 10,000 people and statewide more than 2 crore workers participated. “Patliputra Industrial area, Nalanda Biscuit factory and Sudha Dairy factory located at Phulwarisharif saw large protests,” he added. 

The strikes were notable for the participation of women scheme workers and their entirely non-violent nature in the state.

Centre Keeps Bihar Waiting For Flood Funds Again, Opposition Slams Amit Shah.

Source – ndtv.com

Patna: With less than a year to go for the assembly polls, the centre has yet again kept Bihar’s Nitish Kumar government waiting for the Rs 4,000 crore it has demanded in flood damages.

Flood claims made by Bihar and Kerala were not given much credence in the Rs 5,908-crore relief fund released by the central government to seven states recently. According to a press release, Karnataka got Rs 1,869.85 crore (totalling over Rs 3,000 crore when taken together with the first instalment of Rs 1,200 crore) while Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra received Rs 1,749.73 crore and Rs 1,500 crore respectively. Bihar, however, had to make do with just Rs 400 crore.

When upset Bihar officials questioned the reason for more funds not being allotted despite the state getting hit by floods two times in a row last year, resulting in the death of over 200 people, they were told that one more visit by a central team would be required. The opposition, however, was far from convinced.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Shivanand Tiwari termed it as a “clear-cut case of partisanism” by the central government, recalling how it had granted just Rs 1,700 crore as compared to the state’s demand for Rs 7,000 crore even the previous year. He also claimed that the BJP knows Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won’t make a big issue of it, given that he is “more interested in striking a favourable seat-sharing deal than the people”.

Congress legislator Shakeel Ahmed Khan termed it as proof that the plight of the poor in Bihar does not move Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “What else can you expect from a Finance Ministry under the BJP?” he exclaimed.

Janata Dal United spokesperson C Tyagi admitted to being shocked by the low figure, but hoped that the central government would “walk the talk” soon. Last year, the Bihar government had disbursed Rs 2,000 crore among flood victims.

Tejashwi Yadav says IDs lost in floods each year, calls for Bihar bandh over CAA.

Source – hindustantimes.com

Bare-chested supporters of the Rashtriya Janata Dal blocked highways using buffaloes, sat on railway tracks and shouted slogans on Saturday to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in at least two places in Bihar.

Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, which has given the call for a Bihar Bandh against the citizenship act, has appealed to the people of the state to participate in the shutdown.

“In protest against CAA and NRC, the RJD will be leading a Bihar bandh on December 21. On its eve, the party carried a torch rally in all districts to give a call for a peaceful protest,” the former deputy chief minister had tweeted on Friday. 

The RJD’s workers and supporters protested bare chest as they shouted against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and the central government in Darbhanga. They blocked the highway by burning tyres and also protested at the railway line and disrupted the movement of trains.

In Vaishali, the RJD’s workers blocked the highway with the help of buffaloes.

As Tejashwi Yadav opposed the proposed NRC, he said people would not be able to prove their identity if it is implemented, as their identity documents often get washed away in the floods in the state.

“In Bihar, people’s documents flow away with floodwaters. How can they prove their identity?” Yadav had asked.

Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party and member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, had signalled his opposition to an NRC exercise.

He is the first chief minister of an NDA-ruled state to shut its doors on the citizens’ register that would be crucial to the BJP-led national coalition delivering on its promise to expel infiltrators.

However, his party had voted in favour of the controversial changes in the citizenship act that allows the government to give citizenship to minorities from three Muslim countries Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Protests have intensified in various parts of the country after CAA was enacted on December 12.

Opposition parties and civil society say the law is unconstitutional because it links faith to citizenship and discriminatory because it omits Islam.

Bihar Oppn. leaders demand prompt action in cases of rape.

Source – thehindu.com

Opposition party leaders in Bihar on Friday demanded prompt action against those accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case and the recent rape cases in Buxar and Samastipur districts. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he would write to the Central government for a ban on pornographic sites.

Reacting to the Hyderabad police ‘encounter’, Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Tejashwi Yadav said, “The whole country is celebrating the police action in Hyderabad… We want to know what will happen to those accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape of minor girls and the recent rapes in Buxar and Samastipur districts.”

Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi tweeted: “Every day such incidents of rape are happening in Bihar, but no one asks any questions of Nitish Kumar. In Bihar, such perpetrators are being patronised by the government. Those who commit crimes like rape must be punished under a time frame under the law”.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanded that the Central government ban pornographic sites that have been affecting the minds of young people. He later said that he would write to the Centre on the matter. “Some people are using social media for information but some are also misusing it to watch porn sites which are corrupting their minds,” Mr. Kumar said at an awareness meeting in Gopalganj in the course of his ongoing Jal, Jivan, Hariyali yatra (water, life and greenery journey).

His deputy in the Cabinet and senior state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted to say: “Though people, especially women, in the country have heaved a sigh of relief after all four accused persons of rape were killed in the police encounter, it would have been better if such a moment had not come and the accused were hanged to death after a verdict by a fast track court.”

Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission Dilmani Mishra said that like in Hyderabad, police in Bihar too should shoot rapists. “Yes, the Hyderabad police did the right thing. Rapists must be shot dead. In the majority of such cases, the accused threatens the victim with dire consequences and puts pressure on her to withdraw the case. The victims are scared,” Ms. Mishra told journalists in Buxar where she had gone to make inquiries into an alleged rape and murder case.

On December 3, a half-burnt body of a woman was found on farmland in the Itadhi police station area in Buxar district. The victim was allegedly raped, murdered and her body burnt to conceal her identity. No one has been arrested yet in the case. Neither has the identity of the woman been ascertained. A similar case was recorded the next day (December 4) in Samastipur district.