Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement, on the Independence Day to increase minimum wages by nearly 50 per cent for the Capital’s workforce, has reportedly not gone well with the AAP’s Trade Wing, which has said that any such move would force the industrial units to shift their base outside Delhi.
Once the Delhi Cabinet takes a call on the matter on Wednesday, the traders unit will announce its future course of action. If the minimum wages are revised by the Cabinet, the same will be sent to lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung for final approval.
A delegation of the trader’s wing, led by its president Ashok Khandelwal, on Tuesday met Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and labour Minister Gopal Rai to apprise them about the drawbacks of any such move. Earlier, a 13-member committee appointed by Rai had recommended a 40 per cent hike in minimum wages.
AAP Traders Unit convener Brajesh Goyal said the minimum wages being paid in Delhi were already 30 per cent more than other States. “If the Government still goes for hike in minimum wages, we will have no other option but to go for Delhi bandh. We will decide our future course of action only after city cabinet takes a final call on the matter.”
Upping his Government’s push for economic parity to counter a growing rich-poor divide, Kejriwal had on Monday urged his counterparts and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revise wages across India, saying “policies that take care of only the super-rich won’t work,” and Governments should take care of the poor.