Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 3: Underlining the necessity of wider unity among the working people for resisting the anti-working class policies of the Government, CITU today pledged to intensify struggle to fight the anti-working class and anti-people policies of the Government.
M Y Tarigami, State President, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in his address to the 4th Conference of Jammu and Kashmir State, held on May 1-2 in the background of an unprecedented May Day rally, concluded with the determination, said that there is no room for any illusion, and only united struggles of the toilers can force the Government and employers to concede the genuine demands of the working people.
He stated that the social security benefits like pension, provident fund, health insurance etc. are hard won rights of the working class secured through decades of struggle. These gains are now being reversed through privatization of pension funds, provident funds and cuts in subsidies and welfare benefits and such measures being implemented across the world today specifically target the social security benefits in order to pass on the burden to the working people.
Stressing for implementation of the basic labour laws in the State, Tarigami demanded amendment in the Minimum Wages Act and fixation of statutory minimum wage of not less than Rs 10,000 per month.
Inaugurating the conference, K. Hemlata, Secretary CITU called upon the delegates to build resistance through broader class mobilization and in alliance with other mass organizations and democratic sections in view of the mounting attacks on the lives and livelihood of the working people flowing out of the faulty economic policies being aggressively pursued by the Government.
“The unemployment situation has worsened both in urban and rural areas, despite passing of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Despair among the young generation entering the employment market is increasing rapidly. The utter collapse of public distribution system and commercialisation of education system has made life miserable for common people,” he said.
The conference adopted several important resolutions including on ‘Trade Union Rights, Working Women, Food Security, Price Rise, Unemployment and against Privatization of Centuar Hotel Srinagar.
The conference elected a Working Committee with 41 members, out of which three places were left vacant for cooption later. It also elected a state secretariat with Mohd Yousuf Tarigami as State President, Om Prakash as General Secretary, Sham Prasad Kesar as treasurer, Abdul Rashid Najar and Jagdish Raj Sharma as Secretaries, Abdul Gani Bhat and Suneeta Baghat as Vice-Presidents.