The Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) on Sunday said it would stage a dharna in front of the State Assembly on November 12 in protest against the State Government’s ‘lackadaisical’ attitude towards 1.5 crore unorganised workers.
A decision to this effect was taken at the INTUC’s State branch executive body meeting held here under chairmanship of its president and former MP Rama Chandra Khuntia.“Even though six years have passed since the UPA Government adopted the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act 2008, the State Government is yet to implement it. Unoroganised workers like farm labourers, forest labourers, marginalised and small farmers, fishermen, village artisans, small vendors, rickshaw pullers and pedlars are suffering a lot due to non-implementation of the Act,” alleged INTUC functionaries.
They demanded that the Stat Government should take immediate initiatives to provide identity cards and all facilities of construction workers to the unorganised workers. Besides, they also wanted that the unorganised workers be included in Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana and Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana.INTUC members felicitated Khuntia for being adorned with a doctorate degree from the Utkal University for his thesis, ‘Impacts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee’.