Take out protest rally highlighting their charter of demands
Demanding that labourers’ rights should not be denied, members of Salem district unit of CITU staged a demonstration, part of their State-wide stir, highlighting a charter of demands here on Tuesday. They also took out a protest rally.
Presided over by CITU district president P. Paneerselvam, the members urged the Tamil Nadu government to regularise the functioning of unorganised welfare boards.
They also said that the officials should not insist on bank passbooks, ID cards and caste certificates to become members especially for load men in welfare boards. The ID cards issued by boards would suffice for these purposes. The arrears must be distributed to load men without further delay.
The pending petitions should be cleared immediately.
The women labourers should be given pension from the age of 50 while the accident relief fund should be raise to Rs. 2 lakh. The National Medical Claim Schemes should be extended to all members of unorganised sectors.
The members should not be urged to mention their caste names while registering their names for seeking benefits. Collector should convene monthly meetings to discuss the grievances of welfare board members.
Adequate staff
All offices of welfare boards in districts should have adequate staff to man them. The present officials should be empowered to sanction memberships to those who had already applied. Compensation had to be given to the heirs of those who had died based on photo copies of member ID cards even though the deceased had lost their cards. The minimum wage should be fixed at Rs. 10,000 which should be revised once in two years.
The government must announce monthly minimum wages for house maids. Anyone can become the member of welfare board if a recognised union endorsed them. Members from various affiliated units of CITU including Salem Zilla Load Men Association, took part in the agitation in which frontline functionaries also participated.
