AITUC asks government to not delay welfare board for unorganised sector

AITUC urges government to establish welfare board for unorganised labourers, demands revival of textile park and salary arrears disbursement.

The CPI-affiliated AITUC has urged the government to urgently implement the long-pending plea for a welfare board for unorganised labourers.

The AITUC general council, which held a meeting presided by Dinesh Ponnaiah, AITUC president, passed a resolution asking the government to not delay any further the establishment of a welfare board that would extend a social security net for more than 40,000 workers in the unorganised sector across diverse vocations.

Pointing out that the government, which had announced the constitution of a welfare board following a long workers’ struggle, the proposal was yet to take off. The government should immediately set up a welfare board and allocated adequate funds, the resolution said.

Through another resolution, the AITUC reiterated its demand for a textile park that would aggregate defunct mills and generate jobs. It urged the Lt. Governor, K. Kailashnathan, who had recently visited the defunct AFT Mills and suggested putting the space to other use, to abandon the idea and instead take steps to revive the textile unit.

The AITUC has also demanded that enterprises such as PASIC and PAPSCO immediately disburse salary arrears to workers. It also wanted the Pondicherry Municipality to conduct the election to the street vendors committee as the process had been postponed abruptly after the filing of nominations.

AITUC general secretary K. Sethuselvam, AITUC honorary president V.S. Abishegam and others leaders participated.