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Tag: government

  • The government of this state increased the minimum wage of laborers by about 25 percent.

    The government of this state increased the minimum wage of laborers by about 25 percent.

    By PTI
    GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government on Monday announced in the state Assembly that minimum wages given to skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers have been increased by nearly 25 per cent — up to more than Rs 2,400 per month — a hike coming after a gap of nine years.

    The announcement about the increase in minimum wages, which will become effective after a notification is issued within a fortnight, was made in the Assembly by Gujarat Labour and Employment Minister Balwantsinh Rajput, who said the current payment structure for labourers came into force in the state in 2014.

    He said the hike will benefit nearly 2 crore people.

    For skilled labourers working in the jurisdiction of municipal corporations, municipalities and urban development authorities in 46 different types of businesses listed in the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the government has hiked the minimum monthly wage from Rs 9,887.80 to Rs 12,324, a rise of Rs 2,436.20, or 24.63 per cent, he said.

    For semi-skilled labourers, the state has hiked the minimum monthly wage from Rs 9,653.80 to Rs 11,986, up Rs 2,332.20, or 24.15 per cent.

    For unskilled workers, the monthly wage has been raised from Rs 9,445.80 to Rs 11,752, indicating a rise of 24.41 per cent, said Rajput.

    For skilled labourers working outside the jurisdiction of municipal corporations, municipalities and urban development authorities, the state government has increased the minimum monthly wage from Rs 9,653.80 to Rs 12,012, up Rs 2,358.20, or 24.42 per cent, said the minister.

    The minimum monthly wage for semi-skilled labourers for this category of workers (outside the jurisdiction of municipal corporations, municipalities and urban development authorities), has been hiked from Rs 9,445.80 to Rs 11,752, while for unskilled labourers, it has been increased from Rs 9,237.80 to Rs 11,466, said Rajput.

    “This is for the first time the Gujarat government has given a 25 per cent hike in minimum wages. New wages will come into effect after a notification in this regard is issued within a week or two. The new wage structure will benefit nearly 2 crore people directly and indirectly,” said Rajput.

    Moreover, the state government has decided to double the minimum wage given to labourers associated with sugarcane cutting and loading activity.

    Their wage has been increased from Rs 238 per tonne to Rs 476 per tonne, said the minister.

    The new wage structure has been prepared keeping in mind various parameters such as the number of members in a family, cost of food, clothing, house rent, electricity cost, education and healthcare expenditure, among others, said the minister.

    The state government had started the process to review the minimum monthly wage in May last year by issuing a notification inviting suggestions and objections from various stakeholders.

    It had also appointed a ‘Gujarat State Minimum Wages Advisory Board’ to analyze these suggestions and objections and make recommendations to the government.

    In consultation with the board, the state government has decided to revise the minimum wages, said Rajput.

  • NGO angry with Supreme Court’s decision, demands compensation from the government for the victims

    NGO angry with Supreme Court’s decision, demands compensation from the government for the victims

    By PTI
    BHOPAL: Voluntary organisations fighting for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy have expressed displeasure over the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the Centre’s curative plea seeking an additional Rs 7,844 crore from the Union Carbide Corporation’s (UCC) successor firms and demanded that the government compensate them adequately.

    The apex court last week dismissed the Centre’s curative plea seeking an additional Rs 7,844 crore from the UCC’s successor firms to extend higher compensation to the victims of the gas tragedy that killed more than 3,000 people, maimed thousands of others, and caused environmental damage.

    The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representing the victims are also mulling filing claims of the second generation of survivors in competent courts.

    “We strongly condemn the March 14 decision on the curative petition on several counts and we will now demand from the government to compensate the victims with additional relief, which it had sought in the Supreme Court,” Bhopal Group for Information and Action’s Rachna Dhingra told PTI.

    The organisation was also mulling over filing claims on behalf of the second generation of survivors in competent courts to seek justice for them, she said.

    The judges have displayed “ignorance” about the basic fact that contamination of groundwater in Bhopal by the UCC’s hazardous waste predates the 1984 gas disaster and is unrelated to it, she claimed.

    “They chose to ignore that the ongoing contamination is due to unsafe dumping of poisonous waste before and after the disaster by the UCC. Also ignored by them was the condition of returning the land in its original state, under which the company had taken the land on lease,” Dhingra alleged.

    Rashida Bee, president, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, said the Supreme Court ignored arguments that the UCC had used fraudulent means to settle the case on the disaster in February 1989.

    “Our lawyer had in fact presented documentary evidence of the UCC’s representative misleading Indian government officials into believing that a majority of the survivors suffered only temporary injuries. There is not a word in the decision about this,” Bee said.

    The court’s claim that Bhopal survivors received six times more compensation than that provided under the Motor Vehicles Act is “overwhelmingly false”, said Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangarsh Morcha.

    While delivering the March 14 judgement, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul observed that there was no rationale by the Centre to rake up the issue two decades after the settlement.

    The Centre had wanted another Rs 7,844 crore from the UCC’s successor firms over and above the USD 470 million (Rs 715 crore) it got from the American company as part of the settlement in 1989.

    Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha’s president Nawab Khan said, “Nowhere in the 34-page decision is there any indication that the judges are even remotely familiar with the scientific facts on medical consequences of the exposure to leaked gas.”

    There was nothing in the ruling to show the judges had any understanding of the chronic nature of exposure-induced diseases among the Bhopal survivors, he claimed.

    Nousheen Khan of the Children against Dow Carbide said the SC was not sympathetic to the survivors despite claiming to be so in the judgement and criticised its attitude towards organisations representing them.

    The UCC, now owned by Dow Chemicals, gave a compensation of Rs USD 470 million in 1989 after the toxic methyl isocyanate gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.