Make right to work a fundamental right: CPI(M)

Party 21st congress urges Centre to initiate an urban employment guarantee scheme

April 18, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:42 am IST - VISAKHAPATNAM:

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the Central government take steps to make right to work a fundamental right as this will help in overcoming the deepening crisis of unemployment.

The 21{+s}{+t} party Congress of the CPI (M) has demanded that the government initiate an urban employment guarantee scheme at minimum wages. The government should lift the ban on recruitment in various Central government departments and public sector enterprises besides stopping abolition of vacant posts. The government should reinstate the Banking Service Recruitment Board and take steps to provide unemployment allowance to registered unemployed persons.

In a resolution adopted on the fourth day of the ongoing Congress, the party said the policy being pushed by the Modi government would not solve the problem as it was relying entirely on the organised private sector and corporations, both domestic and foreign, to invest and create jobs. Quoting the NSS report, the party expressed concern that the rate of employment growth declined from 2.7 per cent in 2000-5 to an alarming low of 0.8 per cent in 2009-10 while the labour force grew at 2.23 per cent during 2001-11 as against the growth in employment by 1.4 per cent during the same period. A very disturbing feature of employment was that it was much higher among youth in the age group 15-29 years than in the working population as a whole. In a separate resolution, the party condemned the policy of the government to deliberately dilute and ultimately eliminate the legal right to 100 days of work on demand in rural India. In spite of all its weaknesses, the MGNREGA had a positive impact on rural employment. 

Denounces killings

In another resolution, CPI(M) denounced the `killing’ of five undertrial Muslim prisoners who were on their way to the court in Hyderabad from Warangal by the Hyderabad police recently. The party alleged that the handcuffed prisoners were shot midway apparently as a “revenge to the death of two police personnel" by the activists of the Students' Islamic Movement of India earlier. A resolution to this effect forwarded by Jammu & Kashmir leader Yousuf Tarigami was discussed at the congress.

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