Tag: labourers

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.

Labourer dies as building collapses in Masjid Bunder

Source: asianage.com

Mumbai: A labourer died when the a building in Masjid Bunder area collapsed on Friday. The labourers were demolishing the dilapidated Sayyad building as it was extremely damaged due to the fire that broke out on August 3. The incident took place at 5pm.

Five labourers appointed by the contractor were trapped under the debris. Reportedly, three of them are safe while two suffered head injuries. The two injured were taken to the state-run JJ Hospital, where one labourer Farid Khan (45) was declared brought dead while; Abdul Shaikh (24) was receiving treatment at the hospital.

As per the disaster management report, “The building was owned by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) and the Mumbai Fire Brigade had directed the state body to pull down the mostly woo-den structure. The Mhada had appointed a private contractor to demolish the building. However, during the demolition the entire building came crashing down.”  

Mhada spokesperson Vaishali Gadpale said, “Mhada had appointed a contractor and the demolition work was in process when the building came crashing down. To know the reason behind the tragedy, we will definitely investigate the matter.”

Chief fire officer P.S. Rahangdale said, “Mhada was directed to demolish the building after the August 3 fire.”

On August 3, a major fire had engulfed the ground floor of the building but was confined mainly to electrical fittings and appliances. While several people were rescued, firemen battled the blaze for nearly two days before it was extinguished.

The fire brigade control room received a call at 4.24 am on August 3 and the fire was extinguished at 8.55 am on August 5. The fire brigade personnel safely rescued a man and three woman stranded at the upper floors of the ground plus four-storey commercial cum residential building

The building had large quantity of combustible material such as leather purses, plastic sheets etc.

Goa to probe mass influx of labourers by Patna-Vasco Express

Source: indiatoday.in

Former Goa Minister Rohan Khaunte on Wednesday expressed concern about hordes of labourers arriving at Goa’s Thivim railway station by the Patna-Vasco Express, while also stating that the immigrants could be used as vote banks by politicians.

Responding to Khaunte’s concerns, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the Goa legislative assembly that he had directed the North Goa Collector to probe the mass arrival of labourers by train number 12742 and their whereabouts.

“When a train full of labourers arrives in Goa, there is fear. Labourers come to Goa for work and then they get a plot with help of elements in panchayats, they build a house and then become voters. Where have they come from, what are their antecedents, needs to be checked,” Khaunte told the legislative assembly during Question Hour.

Khaunte’s comment comes days after a video of hundreds of passengers alighting the train number 12742 Patna-Vasco Express at the Thivim railway station in North Goa went viral on social media.

Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao also alleged that the employment ratio between Goans and non-Goans in the state’s casinos was skewed, urging the Chief Minister to ensure that more Goans get employment in the casino industry.

“80 per cent employees of casinos are outsiders. Casinos are needed for revenue, but they have to give jobs to Goans. Most of the jobs are taken by Manipuris and Nepalis,” Alemao said, even as Sawant assured the House that he would direct the state Labour Ministry to examine the issue.

80 bonded labourers rescued from Kurukshetra

Source: tribuneindia.com

Around 80 bonded labourers, including women and children, were rescued yesterday from the owner of a brick-kiln in Kurukshetra. All belong to Nalanda and Banka districts of Bihar and were brought here by human traffickers.

The labourers were not issued release letters according to the 1976 order, nor were they rehabilitated or given remuneration according to the 2016 scheme. They reached Delhi and sat on strike at Jantar Mantar. After nine days of struggle, an FIR was registered against the principal employer at Pahwa police station in Kurukshetra yesterday and release certificates were issued to the labourers. However, children were still to receive the release certificates.

Some organisations such as the Bandhua Mukhti Morcha along with a team of the Human Rights Law Network and some students of law and foreign interns reached out to these labourers by creating a fund to collect money to buy tickets for them to go home in Bihar.

These landless people easily fell prey to human traffickers and after being trafficked, they ended up as bounded labourers. The employer, Minku Gupta, not only exploited them and took advantage of their vulnerable condition, but also harassed and physically assaulted them through goons.

These labourers wanted to go home but Gupta and the contractor did not allow them to leave. Several labourers had suffered injuries while several women and their children suffered due to inhuman conditions they were made to live in.