S. Prasannakumar, Member of the National Committee Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has accused P.T. Parmeshwar Naik, Minister of State for Labour of taking huge ‘kick back’ to favour the owners of beedi firms and passing the orders of depriving beedi workers of dearness allowance.
“Mr. Naik has a Government order, passed in April 2015, which denies payment of ‘dearness allowance’ to beedi workers. As a result, the owners of beedi workers are benefitted by around Rs. 400 crores every month meting out severe injustice to beedi workers. I want him to spell out the ‘kick back’ he got from the owners of beedi firms”, he demanded while talking to press persons here on Sunday.
Stating that never in the history such a decision was taken to deprive the rights of the beedi workers, who number around 15 lakhs spread over in 23 districts, Mr. Kumar suspected that the kick back has reached Chief Minister too and demanded an answer from him too.
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According to him, the DA for the current year was Rs. 13 per thousand beedis to insulate the beedi workers from the rising price rise. “Such being the situation, government depriving them the payment of DA, merely on the memorandum of the owners of beedi firms, which would be a perpetual one, deprives beedi workers of their rights”, he charged.