AFTER a sudden declaration of the nationwide coronavirus lock-down on March 24, the labour contractors and employers swiftly fled the scene. Except for lip sympathy, the state and central governments did nothing for the migrant labourers.
FINANCE minister has announced an allocation of Rs 40,000 crore for MNREGA. The FM had claimed in her press conference on May 17 that additional funds would be provided for MNREGA and 40-50 per cent more workers will be enrolled under the scheme compared to May 2019. However, the total budget available, including the Rs 40,000 crore for the MNREGA does not concur with her claims.
BIHAR is sitting on the volcanic eruption of coronavirus as the reverse migration is reaching its peak. The health infrastructure is in shamble in Bihar and the government is ill prepared to meet the situation.
ONLY communism has the power to solve people's problems, asserted the leaders of various Left parties who spoke at an online public meeting organised on ‘Telangana Formation Day- People's Demands Day’, on June 2. They said that the Kerala government led by the Left Democratic Front had set an example by effectively combating the Covid-19 pandemic while the BJP government miserably failed in doing so and has surrendered to the pressures of the corporates during the crisis period.
THE Central Trade Unions (CTUs) – INTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC – in their meeting on June 3, 2020, congratulated the workers for responding enthusiastically to the nation-wide protest call demanding immediate halt to changes in labour laws. The meeting took serious note of the continuous aggressive attack on the workers’ rights ignoring all the joint representations to the government on the matter including the nationwide protest on May 22. They called upon the workers to make success the nationwide protest day on July 3.
THE crime branch of the Delhi police has fabricated a conspiracy theory which seeks to link anti-CAA protesters with the communal violence which took place in north-east Delhi in end February. The pattern of arrests, the cases and charge-sheets filed, reveal the real conspiracy which has been hatched under the aegis of Amit Shah’s home ministry.
THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on June 10, has congratulated the peasantry and workers for coming out in lakhs to burn the anti-farmer ordinances brought by the Narendra Modi led BJP government.
AGRICULTURE workers organised protests throughout the country on June 4 to demand food, work and social security for the rural masses in the times of crises. The protest demonstrations were organised from village to district level in 15 states. Through this struggle rural proletariat raised their demands and conveyed its message clear and loud: the wealth of the country belongs to its people and we shall have it; we need food, employment, education, health and social security for people.
‘It is a historic day today for agriculture. The country gained freedom in 1947, but farmers are getting freedom through this ordinance,” union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said during a press conference on June 3. This is the manner how the RSS led syndicate used to rollout their propaganda.
THE unplanned and abrupt announcement of the national lockdown was made as the academic year was ending and many examinations were either in progress or were scheduled to take place. The sudden announcement has not just disrupted the academic year but has brought in uncertainty among students about their future. The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, in a statement issued on June 7, has said that while it has impacted all students, the disabled and the marginalised are the worst affected.