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Ensure a larger budget: trade unions

Aarti Dhar

Focus should be on agriculture, social infrastructure development and health

NEW DELHI: Major central trade unions have asked the government to ensure a larger budget with focus on agriculture, social infrastructure development, health, education and sanitation.

At a pre-budget meeting with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram here on Wednesday, representatives of major trade unions said the budget should be at least 10 lakh crore in the wake of the general elections the following year. If the government is genuinely committed to the uplift of the poor, the budget must reflect the genuinity in practice, they said.

Meanwhile, bank unions have decided to go for a nationwide two-day strike on February 25 and 26 to oppose the proposed merger of nationalised banks.

Pointing out that they had “serious differences” with the economic policy being pursued, the trade union representatives described the meeting as a “fruitless exercise” where they have their views, and in most cases these were cynically ignored.

“There is no interaction. We are not given to understand what are the reasons even when the government lives on our support our opinion is hardly considered,” All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters.

Unlike the other years, the budget of 2008 must break new grounds; a decisive change is needed to ameliorate the grievances of the people. Urgent steps are needed to combat the price rise of the essential commodities, particularly foodgrains. The collapsed public distribution system must be restored, they said.

Stressing on the need for cheap rural credit at a low interest rate, the representatives also sought augmented subsidy for agriculture, filling up of all vacancies in the government sector and a Centrally-funded comprehensive labour law for improving the condition of the unorganised labour class and agricultural workers.

Opposing the merger of nationalised banks, the trade unions’ leaders demanded a ban on outsourcing and informalisation of the formal sector. The “regressive” tax system must be replaced with a progressive one. “The rich and affluent should pay for the food and health of the poor,” Mr. Dasgupta added.

A political system that did not deliver, only plays hoax with the people, and a planning process which widened the economic divide and accentuated the disparity was a miscarriage, Mr. Dasgupta said. Among those who participated included the Centre for Indian Trade Unions, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and the Indian National Trade Union Congress.

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