DELHI: Workers Denied Minimum Wages for 15 months, TUs to strike on July 20

MORE than a year since the government failed to implement minimum wages in Delhi, members of eleven trade unions including major ones like CITU, AITUC and INTUC have decided to go on strike on July 20 pressing for their demands. A formal notice was given to the chief minister and the lieutenant governor of Delhi on June 27.While the minimum wage of workers in Delhi is declared to be Rs 13,896 by the government on March 3, 2017, it has not been implemented yet. Most of the workers are denied minimum wage even as they are forced to work for more than 12 hours a day.

Public meeting of Indo Canadian Workers Association

A PUBLIC meeting of Indo Canadian Workers Association (ICWA) of Canada was organised in Surrey, Canada on June 30, 2018. Tikender Singh Panwar former deputy mayor of Shimla and member of the CPI(M)’s PD/Lok Lahar unit was the chief guest and the key note speaker. This public meeting was attended by near 100 people from different walks of life.

ANDHRA PRADESH: CPI(M) Protest against Harassment of Minorities

CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh state committee has organised a protest on July 12, against the illegal arrest of young men belonging to the minority community in Guntur. The CPI(M) activists including the state secretary P Madhu, who were on their way to visit the families of the arrested were lathi-charged and arrested by the Guntur police.

Historic Betrayal of Farmers: BJP Govt Denies Promised C2+50% & Assured Procurement

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP had generated high hopes and got the support of farmers in 2014 elections by promising the implementation of the Swaminathan commission recommendation of fixing MSP according to the formula C2+50 percent. It has betrayed them yet again by announcing MSP for the Kharif crops based on A2+FL costs instead of the promised more comprehensive C2 costs. Also no steps have been taken to ensure assured procurement. Without assured procurement any such announcement is only notional and will not accrue to the cultivating peasantry.

OECD-ICRIER Report on Farm Situation: Correct Diagnosis, Wrong Medicine

THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on July 10, has noted that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (OECD-ICRIER) Report on the farm situation vindicates its position that the neoliberal economic policies have adversely affected the peasantry and accentuated the agrarian crisis in the country. The report has rightly diagnosed that farming in India has been unremunerative for two decades. According to the report the gross farm revenues fell 14 percent on average between 2000 and 2016.

AIFAWH Observes Demands Day on July 10

NO to the move to stop hot cooked meals in anganwadis!NO to the move to introduce nursery schools in place of anganwadis!NO to the cut in central share of the ICDS budget from 60% to 25%For recognition as workers, for minimum wage and pensionTHE All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH), in a statement issued on July 10, has congratulated the anganwadi workers and helpers all over the country for their vigorous protest on July 10 which is observed by the union as ‘Demands Day’.Lakhs of anganwadi workers

AIAWU Working Committee Meets in Maharashtra

THE central working committee of AIAWU met at Nasik (Maharashtra) on June 19-20. 32 comrades attended the meeting from Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. The general secretary’s report had noted that the all-round attack on the rural cash economy, the hard hit farming sector, unemployment and the loss of jobs in agriculture, in construction as well as in small-scale rural businesses, is hurting the mass of the rural people and driving them to ruin and starvation.

Assault on Education

THE news about the legislations being brought forth to abolish the University Grants Commission (UGC) and to set-up a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) has brought into sharp focus the assault on education and, in particular, higher education, that is taking place under the Modi government.The various steps taken in the sphere of education are motivated by a twin motive – neoliberalism and Hindutva ideology.

WhatsApp does not Create Lynch Mobs, People Do

THE spate of lynchings related to rumours of child lifting has now affected large part of the country, with new incidents being reported every day. Clearly, this is not simply the unintended consequence of WhatsApp, as the government would have us believe. Or that some tinkering with WhatsApp, of course in close “consultation” with Facebook, the owners of WhatsApp, will solve the problem. The I&B ministry’s earlier initiative of regulating news portals, targeting critical news websites is now sought to be dovetailed into this narrative.

The Proposed Abolition of the UGC

THE Modi government is bringing in legislation in the coming monsoon session of the parliament to abolish the University Grants Commission. The UGC has two important roles at present. One is the distribution of funds to colleges and universities; this will now be handled by the ministry of human resource development. The other role is a regulatory one, which will now be taken over by a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). This commission however will have no funds to distribute.The proposed set-up will immensely increase political control over the academia.

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