CITU urges State govt. to fulfil election promises
The Hindu
Salem Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) State president A. Soundararajan said here on Sunday that
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) State president A. Soundararajan said here on Sunday that the State Finance Minister should look at economy from a governance point of view and not as a corporate’s economy.
Mr. Soundararajan, who participated in the State-level committee meeting of Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Union, told reporters that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin must fulfil the promises made during election, including implementation of the old pension scheme.
Efforts were on to outsource workers for the transport corporation and TNEB. For the retired transport employees, dearness allowance (DA) was not paid for seven years. “We moved the court, and the Madras High Court ordered to provide the DA in November. But, the State government filed an appeal and did not pay the DA,” he said..
There were over 30,000 vacancies in the Transport Department, and there were no employees in the maintenance wing. Without maintenance, it would not be possible to prevent accidents. The government was considering taking private buses on contract basis. “We condemn the move,” Mr. Soundararajan added.
Stating that the union planned to meet the people and explain how the government was not fulfilling its promises, Mr. Soundararajan said that there was no option but to stage protests to urge the government to meet its demands.
“We do not want to go on an indefinite strike, but the government should not force us to do so. We would support this State government in its protest against the Union government. At the same time, we urge the State government to fulfil our demands. The alliance with the DMK is for political reasons, which is a separate issue. We will not have a relationship with the DMK if it joins the BJP, which will not happen. The CPI (M)’s alliance with the DMK remains intact and will continue,” he said.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.