Dola Sen speaks on The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017

Dola Sen speaks on The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017

Posted on February 8, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Honourable Chairman Sir, Thank you for letting me speak on this important Bill.

Sir, India has a 472 million labour market. Out of this, 90% of the workforce is in the informal and unorganised sector. It contributes 45% of the GDP. However, workers are deprived of the benefits of formal employment like provident fund and health insurance (like ESI), bonus, dearness allowance etc. Many workers complain that employers pay them less than the minimum wages mandated by States anc Centre. This is today’s reality. I am sorry to say, the Central Labour Directorate has not been able to exert the law of the land.

Sir, it is important to protect the interests of the workers and labourers. I am glad that a reformed labour code will ensure that wages reach the workers in a timely manner.

However, this Bill states that all wages must be transferred to the bank account of the employer, unless the Government specifically notifies a certain amount, which may be paid in cash. This may pose a difficulty for many who still do not have bank accounts.

This Government constantly talks about cashless India, Digital India. However, does the Government know how many people have bank accounts? The harsh reality is that 80% of women don’t have bank accounts in India. More than 50% of workers do not have bank accounts till date.

To add to the misery of the workers, the restrictions on cash withdrawal have still not been removed by the government. How will the poor worker stand in the ATM queues during his work hours to withdraw money? How will he pay service to banks? Sir, Political parties can receive Rs 2,000 cash donation but the poor worker cannot.

For example, I want to add, if an entrepreneur has to pay Rs 2 crore as wages or salaries of workmen per week, say on Saturday. He is also entitled to withdraw only Rs 24,000 from his bank account per week. Obviously there are no needs for lockout. Factories after factories are being closed due to lockouts affecting the workers.

Sir, in Bengal, there are over 4 lakh people working in the tea gardens. There are over 5 lakh people working in the jute mills. Over 1.5 crore people are associated with tea industry, over 2.5 crore people are associated with jute industry. These workers and labourers could not be paid their wages due to demonetisation.

Sir, demonetisation has caused hardship to all workers and labourers. After 3 months of pain and agony, over 25 crore daily wageworkers have lost their jobs. Unemployment has increased to 7%.

There is a need to provide a comprehensive social security system for workers in the informal sector. The Government cannot make the poor worker suffer because of its own agenda to go cashless and Digital.

Ordinance on demonetisation was uncalled for: Trinamool in Lok Sabha

Posted on February 7, 2017 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Speaking on the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Bill, 2017 in Lok Sabha, Trinamool MP called the Ordinance (which this Bill will replace) as “unnecessary and uncalled for”.

Quoting the RBI Act, Section 26(1) and (2), Saugata Roy questioned the Centre under what provision of law can the government restrict people from accessing their bank accounts. He said it was in violation of Article 300(A) of the Constitution.

He said that the Prime Minister’s reply during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address did not have any adequate answer on what was the rationale behind demonetisation. He accused the government of changing goal posts from black money to ‘Digital India’.

“In a country where there are 5.1 lakh villages, you have got only 1.36 lakh bank branches. We have got 2.18 lakh ATMs. 40 percent of whom do not work and 40 percent of whom do not have cash. You are subjecting the poor people to this. I mentioned yesterday by taking away cash from the economy you have breaking the backbone of the society,” Saugata Roy said.

He added: “Counterfeit notes are only 0.03% of total circulation. To get Rs 400 crore out of system, they cancelled Rs 15.44 lakh crore. Total amount of black money in cash is only 6%. People convert it into gold, real estate or keep it abroad. The government has failed to bring back black money from abroad.”

He asked the government if lengthy speeches in Parliament will bring back the lives of the 150 people who died due to demonetisation. He said that people of India will reply to this heartless and reckless step.

Country facing financial emergency due to demonetisation: Kalyan Banerjee in LS

Posted on February 6, 2017 | by aitc | Leave a Comment

Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha, Kalyan Banerjee today cornered the government on the issue of demonetisation. During a discussion on the Motion of Thanks on President’s Address, he said the country is facing financial emergency due to demonetisation.

Kalyan Banerjee said that restrictions on withdrawing money violate Article 300 (A) of Constitution of India. Maintaining that Trinamool is not against curbing black money, Kalyan Banerjee demanded to know how much black money has been recovered after demonetisation and how much was brought back from abroad.

“Unemployment increased to 7% in the week following demonetisation and 25 crore daily wage workers lost their employment. 150 people have lost their lives. Cooperative banks were not allowed to exchange demonetised notes. The poorest of the poor take loans from cooperative banks not nationalised banks. Farmers do not have money to buy seeds and fertilizers. They are unable to sell their products. There has been 8% reduction in sales of two wheelers, 18.66% reduction in sales of four-wheelers,” he said.

On the issue of women empowerment, Kalyan Banerjee said that while the Centre allocated only Rs 200 crore for the entire country under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, Bengal government, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, allocated Rs 1000 crore for Kanyashree. He also urged the government to bring the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Kalyan Banerjee slammed the govt on the issue of federalism. He asked under what provisions of law was the Centre bypassing the States. He accused the present Prime Minister of India of acting as an autocrat and taking away powers of the States. He also wanted to know how much money is being spent by the government for publicity.

Calling ‘Digital India’ only a slogan, Kalyan Banerjee said most areas do not have proper mobile networks. He said the minister must prepare the infrastructure before coining slogans. He reminded the government that only slogan-baazi will not solve problems.

The MP also said that year after year tall promises are made in the President’s speech but they are not met.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay speaks in Lok Sabha during the discussion on Rule 193

Posted on March 2, 2016 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

What I would say, Madam, is that we want the discussion on the President’s Address be held and we want to hear from the Hon’ble Prime Minister, because our elections will be taking place very shortly and we have to go back very soon, tomorrow or day after when the election notification will take place. But we are one of the major Opposition parties, having 34 MPs. We also have submissions to make – our ideas, our views – separately, and we want to make them.

What we think is that, according to our observations, keeping the Opposition out from the floor of the House on the issue of debate, if that Presidential Address would have been completed first and then it could have been taken up, it could have been better.

Venkaiah ji has given some precedent. Bhratruhari Mahtab was telling me that one of the issues was universities. But, that was much more important. This is an issue which was published in a particular newspaper and the Hon’ble Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha uttered some comments that, by projection of some particular newspaper, no issue should be ventilated in the Rajya Sabha.

We are not actually concerned about the whole issue. We want to study it more, its merits and demerits. But we think that it was not a proper time to take it up, when the House was running very smoothly and nicely.

Main Kirit ji ko kahenge ki aapne kaha ki Digital India nahi hua. Woh baat aapne kaha. Main baatana chahta hun, Madam, who toh Budget main hamara party bolenge. Main nahi rah shakta, yeh suited booted Government zaroor bare-footed Government ke tarah aage badna shuru kar diya.

So I think we are not going to speak on this issue in detail. We have also decided to walk out on our own, as the Trinamool Congress.

Main Kirit ji ko kahenge ki aapne kaha ki Digital India nahi hua. Woh baat aapne kaha. Main baatana chahta hun, Madam, who toh Budget main hamara party bolenge. Main nahi rah shakta, yeh suited booted government zaroor bare-footed government ke tarah aage badna shuru kar diya.

So I think we are not going to speak on this issue in detail. We have also decided to walk out on our own, as the Trinamool Congress.

Vivek Gupta speaks on the violation of internet neutrality by telecom operators in India | Full Transcript

Posted on April 29, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Full Transcript

Sir, the Article 19 (I) A of the Constitution guarantees us the Freedom of Expression. However, the telecom operators in cahoots with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India are trying to bring in a backdoor method and violating all modes of net neutrality and make certain applications only on the data networks, which will mean the more data consumed, the more money inflow for them.

However Sir, this will violate any kind of freedom that any telecom user, that is more than 90 million users in India.

Sir, this will also violate the Right to Information as interpreted by the Supreme Court of India.

Sir, by restricting access to information and fair and free usage of internet, these operators, just because they want to make some money, are trying to manipulate and corrupt the system of licensed telecom operations in India.

Sir, the TRAI has also floated a consultation mechanism where you could not go and post your views as the site is always down and when somehow people were able to put in, they simply exposed all the one million people who put it so they can be targeted and their image could be hacked.

Sir, if the Government is serious in allowing this to happen, which I feel is a very, very bad idea, then in the spectrum auction, why did it not mention that the telecom operators will be allowed to do this kind of monopolistic practices.

Sir, the Hon’ble Prime Minister says Skill India will come from Digital India. Sir, if this is the way, we should rename it to Limited Digital India because a non-neutral Digital India would not serve the purpose.

Sir, the National Telecom Policy also envisages affordable and reliable broadband by 2015. Sir, all these will be defeated if TRAI and these telecom operators are allowed to do this.

Sir, when the TRAI is trying to endorse a foreign concept, we would request the TRAI and specially the Ministry of Telecom to instruct TRAI to first see the Indian sensitivities and then follow these kinds of concepts blankly.

Sir, in the end, my request through you is to safeguard the freedom and choice of equality on the internet and to promote innovation and competition on the web. This step should be abhorred, discouraged and the net neutrality of the telecom operators should be restored.