Chandigarh Tribune: Jalandhar: Thursday,
July 28, 2016.
The Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) today declared it shall move the high court against the Akali
government for denial of minimum wages to safai karamcharis in Punjab if the
government did not remove the ‘anomaly’ soon.
Speaking to
media persons here today, AAP spokesperson Sukhpal Khaira said the SAD-BJP
government was denying rights to daily wage labourers across MCs by giving them
a minimum wage of a mere Rs 2,110 per month. He said while the minimum wage
stipulated by the Punjab Government was Rs 7,600, these karamcharis were being
robbed of Rs 5,200.
He said of
the Rs 2,400 per month they got as wages, cheques of only Rs 2,110 per month
were being given to employees.
Notably,
while AAP’s now ousted MP candidate from Jalandhar, Jyoti Mann, was also a
daughter of a safai karamchari, the declaration to uphold the rights to minimum
wages of the safai karamcharis in the state also comes in keeping with the
party’s tilt towards Dalit issues, especially in the Doaba region of the state.
Khaira said,
“As per RTI information provided to Lakhwinder Kaur Phillaur, an AAP activist,
safai sewaks have been working with the municipalities of Phillaur, Morinda,
Nabha, Moga, Garhshankar etc, for more the past more than four years. Of the
hundreds of safai sewaks in Punjab, some had completed even more than 10 years
of employment with the said municipalities. As per RTI information, the safai
sewaks have to work for a minimum of eight to nine hours a day but
unfortunately, they are being paid a meagre Rs 2,400 per month.”
He said while
as per the Section 43 of the Minimum Wages Act 1948, it was the ‘responsibility
of the state to create an economic order in which every citizen finds
employment and receives fair wages’, the state government was failing in this.
He said this was sheer injustice and exploitation with the poorest of the poor
who were doing hard labour to make ends meet. He said, “The AAP urges the Badal
government to immediately take corrective measures and pay Rs 7,600 per month
minimum wages to them for their hard labour. In case the state government fails
to pay them the legitimate dues, the AAP would be left with no option but to
knock the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to ensure justice to the
aggrieved poor safai sewaks.”
Khaira also
said the government had also influenced its machinery and the RTI activist
Lakhwinder Kaur Phillaur was also prevented from receiving the information.
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