Wednesday, September 8, 2010

UPA government adding burden to commonman : MY Tarigami


"The neo liberal policies of UPA II government is adding more burden to the common man in the country" said Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, CPIM Jammu Kashmir State Secretary at a protest rally in Jammu organised by different trade unions as part of All India Strike on Tuesday against unprecedented price rise and rampant violation of labour laws. The rally started from Press Club and culminated at Indira Chowk. Protesters were holding banners, placards and raising slogans against the repressive economic policies implemented by the State and Central Governments.

M.Y Tarigami said that the prices of the essential commodities like food items have raisen disproportionately putting common man, working class and low-income group to grave hardships. “Neo-liberal economic policies implemented by the successive Central Governments since 90’s have created havoc for the vast sections of our population and the net result of these policies is sheer accumulation of wealth in few hands thereby denying any viable and sustainable sources of livelihood for common man”, he asserted. He said that tall claims of ‘India Shining’ and the cry of ‘GDP Growth’ cannot hide this reality that majority of our population still remains unnourished. He emphasised for implementation of Universalisation of Public Distribution System (PDS) instead of existing targeted PDS which denies availability of ration items to majority of our population. Government should provide ration items (rice/wheat) at Rs.2 per Kg. to consumers, he demanded.

Tarigami criticised the proposed Food Security Legislation in its present form which proposes 25 Kgs of food grains (rice/wheat) to BPL and Antodaya card holders i.e. a cut of 10 Kgs from existing 35 Kgs per family at Rs.3 per Kg. Under this proposed legislation not only APL subsidy is eliminated but even APL category will be cancelled and no food grains will be allocated under APL category and the net result will be withdrawing Rs.4,000 crore of food subsidy when the demand has been for more subsidy on food items. He reiterated his demand that buffer food stocks be purchased and made available to the common man especially rural and urban poor by minimising unnecessary expenditure.

“Ever-increasing army of unemployed persons is an area of serious concern for all of us and government should evolve some concrete mechanism to provide meaningful employment avenues to the youth whose number is estimated to have swallowed over five lakh”, Tarigami asserted. “Recently Prime Minister had announced formation of a committee under Dr. C Rangarajan, former Governor RBI, to explore and suggest measures for creating job avenues for the unemployed youth of the State which is not sufficient. What is required is immediate initiation of some concrete measures to create confidence among the youth of the State?” Tarigami said. Tarigami reiterated that ASHA workers in-spite of playing a very significant role in providing basic health services to the poor sections of the society particularly people belonging to far flung, neglected and backward areas, their condition is pathetic, pitiable and miserable in absence of minimum monthly wages and demanded that they may be provided monthly wages regularly.

He appealed to leaders of trade unions and mass organisations to come together to fight these repressive and anti-working class economic policies of the State and Central Governments. General Secretary CITU Comrades Om Prakash, State Treasurer CITU Sham Prasad Kesar, President INTUC Shiv Kumar Sharma, General Secretary INTUC Raghubir Singh, President AITUC Comrade N. K Dogra, Vice President AITUC Balkar Singh, President NZGIEU Daleep Kaul, General Secretary NZEIA Pawan Gupta and Joint Secretary NZEIA Ramesh Chander also addressed the rally. They exhorted to fight unitedly for reversal of neo-liberal economic policies pursued by the UPA Government.

(courtesy : statetimes)

NACIL to restore cancelled Air India Express flights


The National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) has decided to restore the cancelled 300 Air India Express (AIE) flights from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Mangalore airports to five Gulf destinations. The airline had announced cancellation of the Air India Express flights from September 7 to October end to Sharjah, Dubai, Abudhabi, Muscat and Kuwait citing shortage of cabin crew and tough regulations of the DGCA following the Mangalore air crash.

The decision had been taken in view of the sentiments expressed by the Chief Minister, V. S. Achuthanandan, and others following the decision to cancel the flights of the budget carrier. The cancellations had also led to widespread protest by the DYFI. DYFI organised protest marches to all AI offices in Kerala and warned of further agitation if the authorities doesn't correct the wrong decision.
(Courtesy : The Hindu)

DYFI rally for Justice to Air Crash Victims’ Families



Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) lead a protest rally to Air India's office at Lalbaugh in Mangalore on Wednesday, protesting against insurers paying a meagre settlement to the families of the victims of Air India Express accident of May 22.

DYFI demanded the intervention of Union civil aviation ministry in this issue to restrain the Air India Management and the insurance representatives in unduly influencing the victims' families. The protest demonstration was inaugurated by CPIM central committee member Com. P Karunakaran. Addressing the protestors, he said that the irony is that most of the people traveled by the ill-fated plane belong to middle/low income group and majority of them were the only bread winners for their families living in India.Though the Union Civil Aviation Minister Mr Praful Patel and Air India management had announced an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakhs each to the family of the deceased. Further the Union minister declared that the family of deceased would get a final compensation up to Rs 76 lakhs each. But now the officials have decided to give the compensation based on the income of the deceased, which means the insurance companies have to pay only a little amount as compensation as most of the families are from low income group which is injustice, he added.

DYFI Kerala state secretary Com TV Rajesh spoke on the occassion, said the recent activities of AI management and the insurance consortium was disappointing, `alleging' that the insurers with knowledge and connivance of the AI Management have approached the families of the victims and are negotiating a meagre settlement. He claimed that they are persuading the victims to accept a settlement which is based on the income of the deceased, which means the insurance companies have to pay only a little amount as compensation as most of the families are from a low income group.
Rajesh said the irony is that most of the people travelled by the ill-fated plane belonged to middle/low income group and majority of them were the only breadwinners for their families living in India. He further claimed that the Article 21 of Montreal Convention eliminates all arbitrary limits on air carrier liability with respect to accident victims. The carrier may avoid liability for the full amount of damages only if it proves that it was not negligent or that a third party was solely responsible for the damages.


As a further benefit for accident victims, Article 21 holds carriers strictly liable for the first 100,000 SDR (approximately Rs 70 lakh) of proven damages for each passenger, i.e., the carrier may not avoid liability for this amount, even if the accident was caused without any fault or negligence of the carrier.

He said the issue of classifying passengers according to the position and income for assessing the compensation cannot be applied in an international flight because an international flight will have passengers of different nationalities, working in different countries. The difference in currency value in each country will be a hindrance for any assessment made on the value of the income, quoting an example of how a driver working in Dubai earns Rs 70,000 per month in Dubai and a clerk in India who earns only Rs 8,000 per month, hence compensation should be paid according to incomes. "The insurance authorities cannot claim that the clerk in India would get a low compensation as his salary in India is less," he said. Rajesh said this act of AI and the insurance consortium are illegal and against the law.

The DYFI has demanded for the intervention of Union civil aviation ministry in this issue to restrain AI management and the insurance representatives in unduly influencing the innocent victims who are already in a state of mental depression for the loss of their beloved ones. Rajesh said the Union civil aviation ministry should also ensure that the dependents of the victims are adequately compensated.

CPIM leader Com B Madhava also spoke on the occassion.

September 7 : A New chapter in the history of Indian Working Class

Sindudurga(Maharashtra)

Panaji (Goa)

Belgaum (Karnataka)
Sathara (Maharashtra)

Sangli (Maharashtra)

Sholapur (Maharashtra)

Jemshedpur (Jarkhand)

Deradoon (Uttaranchal)

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh)

Ranchi (Jarkhand)

Hissar (Haryana)

Bareli (Uttar Pradesh)

Guwahathi (Assam)

Raichur (Karnataka)

Kolar (Karnataka)

Bangalore (Karnataka)


 
Bidar (Karnataka)

Mangalore (Karnataka)

Srinagar (Jammu Kashmir)

Bhuvaneswar (Orrisa)

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)

Imphal (Meghalaya)

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh)

Amrithasar (Punjab)

Thirunnelveli (Tamil nadu)
Madurai (Tamil Nadu)

Chennai (Tamil Nadu)

Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)

Trivandrum (Kerala)

Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh)

Jammu (Jammu Kashmir)
Mumbai (Maharashtra)

Jalandhar (Punjab)



Glimpses of September 7 All India strike