Workers' Welfare Paramount: Politicians On May Day

The Telangana government and the Opposition today celebrated International Labour Day, also known as May Day, across the State. While official celebrations were conducted in all the districts, various trade unions also took out rallies in support of the working class in various places.

The State government conducted the flagship May Day (International Workers Day) event at Ravindra Bharathi on Sunday morning. Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, who also holds the labour portfolio, chaired the celebrations that were also attended by Council Chairman Swamy Goud, MLC Ramulu Naik, Singareni CMD Sridhar and other officials.

Speaking on the occasion, the labour minister uttered all the usual platitudes about the welfare of the working class being of paramount priority. The TRS government would implement various welfare schemes to help the worker classes, he vowed. The government was also making efforts to revive the Sirpur Kagajagar Paper Mill and restore the jobs of the workers, he added.

The Congress for its part went through the motions of attacking the government for its anti-labour policies. Speaking on the occasion of the May Day celebrations at Gandhi Bhavan organized by INTUC, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy accused both the NDA government at the Centre and the TRS government in the State for implementing anti-labour policies, and said the Congress would not tolerate them. He pointed out that the central government had tried to tax the EPF holdings and to reduce the interest on the same. Stating that the labour unions' agitations were responsible for Centre's backtracking on the issues, he said that the Congress would always support unions in their agitations.

Speaking at the May Day celebrations at Makineni Basava Punnaiah Bhavan along with Party leaders including Tammineni Veerabhadram, CPM Politburo Member B V Raghavulu criticized the NDA government at the Centre and the TRS government in the State for adopting anti-labour policies. He accused the governments of destabilizing the labour acts to suppress the working classes.

The Telangana TDP charged Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao with failing to keep its promises for workers' welfare and regularizing the contract staff. The KCR government denied appointments to sanitary workers whom he called gods, L Ramana charged at the May Day celebrations at NTR Trust Bhavan. The TDP would extend its support to the TNTUC to wage a fight against the anti-people policies of the government, he vowed.