Port Blair, Dec 12: The Finance Minister held Pre Budget 2018 discussion with the representatives of central trade unions on 5th December 2018 in New Delhi. Representatives of all the central trade unions attended the meeting. CITU was represented by its president Smti. Hemalata. The meeting, as every year, appeared to be not more than a ritual. The ‘consultative meeting’ with the 12 trade unions that were called, lasted for around 1 hour. The trade union representatives were requested to give their opinions in 3-4 minutes. The trade unions were asked to express their concerns and suggestions related to the union budget within this time frame.
Ten central trade unions jointly presented their views in a note to the Finance Minister. In her intervention Hemalata reiterated that pre budget consultation with trade unions should not be treated as a mere ritual; the views of the trade unions representing the workers who produce the wealth should be given due place in the budget proposals. She also demanded that the Group of Ministers constituted under the chairmanship of the Finance Minister in 2015 to discuss the demands raised by the trade unions should continue discussions with them and resolve their demands. Instead of focussing on improving ‘ease of doing business’ to benefit the corporates, the government should focus on improving India’s position in ‘Global hunger index’ and closing down the ‘gender gap’ This should be done by increasing allocations for social sector including health and education, to the ICDS, National Health Mission, Midday Meal Programme etc that serve the poor, particularly women and children. ILC recommendations on recognising ‘scheme workers’ as ‘workers’, paying minimum wages to them etc should be implemented.
Smti. Hemlata also emphasised the point that the government should increase spending on social sectors like education and health and mobilise resources for this by taxing the rich who can pay. It should focus on employment generation increasing public expenditure on infrastructure. All vacant posts in various government departments including railways etc should be filled up by fresh recruitment. MGNREGA should be implemented in all rural areas and extended to urban areas.
