Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that around 55 lakh workers in the city will benefit from the increased minimum wages that have been notified by the Delhi Government following the Supreme Court's recent order.
Kejriwal said that this is an important step to tackle recession and poverty in the city. "We have worked hard in the last five years to increase the minimum wages for the laborers working in the city," he said.
"The Supreme Court verdict on our minimum wage policy is the result of our five-year struggle. This is the most efficient and the most effective step by the Delhi government at the time of economic slowdown in the country.
This is a significant measure to ensure that an economically weaker man has enough money to sustain himself and his family. This will increase economic production in the market which will increase employment and will revive the economy," he said.
Talking about implementation of the policy, Chief Minister said that on-ground implementation of the minimum wage policy is very difficult. He said, "We have taken many positive measures with regard to the implementation of the policy. We removed 1373 contractors associated with government agencies who were not giving minimum wages. Also, we conducted two special drives upon complaints of minimum wage violation and charged 100 cases of violation of the same," he said.
He further said that the government also took cases of cheating against six employers who used to illegally withdraw money from the employee's accounts using the latter's ATM cards, after depositing the wages as per the minimum wage policy."
"We hope that this policy will be instrumental to come out of the economic slowdown. I congratulate the poor laborers of Delhi. I request the traders' associations and others against this policy that in short term you may feel that your cost increases, but when these poor laborers start to purchase products from the market, the economy will revive and the economic slowdown will be removed; and in the long run you will have larger benefits," he said.
Chief Minister also said that the government struggled hard to be able to provide these minimum wages to the laborers. In April 2016, we created a minimum wage committee having members from the union government, laborers and several trades and industry associations, for the creation of minimum wage policy in the Capital, he said, adding that the
Lieutenant Governor rejected the plea on the ground that the committee had been formed without permission and even after several requests, he did not concede.
"We again formed a committee with the permission of the Lieutenant Governor and we implemented its recommendations. After that, the trade and industry Association moved to the Delhi High Court. The High Court rejected our notification. After that we went to the Supreme Court. The court asked us to form a committee within four months along with the objecting association. We set a committee in four months and fixed the minimum wage. That was accepted by the Supreme Court. After which we have issued the notification. Now, the workers will get increased wages," he added.