Thousands take part in Ludhiana rally, banks to be worst affected
In Ludhiana, a rally was organised outside the mini-secretariat, with protesters in numbers raising slogans against the " anti-people, anti-workers, anti-employees, anti-farmers and anti-agricultural labourers policies of the government".
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Sources said that after getting the letter, a seven member committee of the SKM visited Ludhiana on Saturday to hold a meeting with all the 23 farmer unions of Punjab, which so far have either stayed neutral during elections or supported the SSM (Express Photo)Thousands of employees from various government departments of Ludhiana on Monday began a two-day strike which has been called by the Central Trade Unions across the country to express their anger at the government’s economic policies and press their demands for improved rights for industrial workers, employees and farmers.
In Ludhiana, a rally was organised outside the mini-secretariat, with protesters in numbers raising slogans against the ” anti-people, anti-workers, anti-employees, anti-farmers and anti-agricultural labourers policies of the government”. The agitators, who received support from farm unions and farm labourer unions across Punjab, called for “Saving the people–Saving the nation”.
Monday’s rally near the Ludhiana secretariat was organised by the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), and Central Trade Unions (CTU). The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) too lend support to the strike, with only the officer-level cadre of public sector banks staying away from the agitations.
Addressing the rally later, Amarjeet Kaur, the national general secretary of AITUC said, “The national resources and the national assets of India has been put on sale by the Narendra Modi government for benefit of Indian and foreign corporates. The working class, which creates national wealth, is being thrust upon with draconian changes in labour laws”
Badish Jindal, national president of the Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations, in his address, however, said that he was against the bank employees going on strike. He said, “The strikes were planned during the very important annual closing period of the year. Already there were two holidays on Saturday and Sunday. With bank employees going on strike now, the banking sector will be affected for four days now.”
As per estimates, the average daily bank clearing of Ludhiana is more than Rs 1200 crores and that of Punjab is Rs 5000 crores. However, the strike now has put this on hold with many important payments of tenders and exports likely to get stuck now, leading to face losses.
Jindal, however, was sympathetic to the reason for the strike and said the government failed to manage the situation due to which the industry was going to suffer.
“We have requested the government to extend the last due dates and to refund the interest of four days,” he said.
Monday’s strike saw bare minimum participation by worker unions of private factories, as there are hardly any organised unions in Punjab. Workers of two factories in Ludhiana observed strike, while a large number of textile units of Amritsar refrained from work on Monday. In Bathinda, employees of Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant observed a strike, which was supported by the farmers as well.
Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of BKU Ugrahan said, “We organised dharnas at 24 different locations in 11 districts of Malwa. Our demand is that the purchase agreements signed with private thermals be scrapped. We also oppose the amendments in labour laws.”
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