'Declaring the indefinite strike by unions of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) illegal, chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said more than 50,000 protesting employees will not be taken back into service. Employees of the public road transport body have been on a strike since Saturday morning, demanding the corporation’s merger with the government. Among the other demands were filling various posts and better pay and job security. A call to strike was given after talks with the government failed to make any headway...'
'...Privatisation is being introduced in diverse ways. Some public sector enterprises are earmarked for outright sale, not just loss-making ones, but even those which make handsome profits. In others, the government intends to reduce its own share of equity below 51% through disinvestment. In still others, the idea is to break up the total activity into several different individual activities and to privatise some individual activities by divesting the public sector of those; this last route is what is being followed with regard to the Railways.
'An order passed by the administration of union territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli, on the “mobilisation of industrial workers by the officers” during Amit Shah’s visit, has been criticised for involving the government machinery in political events. The Union home minister and Bharatiya Janata Party president is addressing a rally in Silvassa on September 1.
'It is ironical that the Narendra Modi government, which never tires of reminding everybody about their nationalism and patriotism, is actually following an economic policy of selling off the country’s national resources to foreign companies. It recently announced measures of easing foreign direct investment (FDI) in coal mining and associated infrastructure, contract manufacturing, single brand retail and digital media.
'Data collated by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) reveals that at least 50 persons have died cleaning sewers in the first six months of 2019 alone. According to a report in the Indian Express, the figure in question, by the NCSK’s own admission, is an underestimation as it only accounts for the number of deaths caused by cleaning sewers in only eight states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu out of 36 states and Union territories...'
'“I was beaten up, abused and forced to pick up faeces and excreta despite being hired to do construction work. Modi ji wants to wash the feet of the sanitation workers. Would he ever know what it means to be forced into picking up human faeces?” Asks a teary eyed Kedabai from Madhya Pradesh. Over 50 crore workers in India are employed in the unorganised sector. The National Campaign Committee for Eradication of Bonded Labour (NCCBL), along with district magistrate and local officials, has rescued 125 bonded labourers from four districts.
'Contrary to the claims of highest ever allocation to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the social security scheme that aims to guarantee the right to work is facing severe fund crisis – with state governments left with no funds to pay workers. From October 2018 to February 1, no Fund Transfer Orders (FTOs) were processed due to non-availability of funds for MGNREGA, forcing workers to wait for wages for months, even when the Act promises that wages will be given within 7 to 15 days of work.
'Even though the scheme had been ranked as the world's largest public works programme by the World Bank, it is being systematically undermined with illegal restrictions on its budget allocation, severe payment delays and low wages.... Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been a tried and tested measure to target rising unemployment and ease rural distress in the country. The Rural Employment programme, which guarantees 100 days of manual work a year to at least one member of every rural household, came into effect on February 2, 2006.
'The Hindu notions of purity and pollution, inextricably linked with the caste system and the practice of untouchability, underlie the unsanitary practices in Indian society. These beliefs perpetuate the oppression of the “polluted castes,” who are forced to undertake manual scavenging, unclog manholes and clean other people’s filth. The availability of cheap Dalit labour to do these dehumanising jobs can be cited as one of the reasons why development of toilet facilities and a modern garbage and sewage management system have been neglected so far.
'Bisada, the west UP village where the 50-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched on the suspicion that he had beef in his fridge, has thrown out sparks far beyond its own surroundings. Western UP has long been communally tense, but what was once limited to towns such as Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Aligarh and Muzaffarnagar has spread to its semi-urban and rural areas as cultural and material barriers erode.
