Workers Launch Protest in HP, ‘Give Us Our Machines!’

MGNREGA workers of Darvad, a small village in District Mandi, launched a protest in the Labour Department office, and raised slogans against the state government and officials of the department. The protest, which was led by CITU District President Bhupinder Singh, was staged to express the angst of the workers over the failure of the department to fulfill their demands. 

According to Singh, the state’s Workers Welfare Board provides certain benefits to Construction workers and MGNREGA workers in the form of kind and cash, which have not been given to the workers for over one and a half years now. “According to the WWB, workers get certain benefits in kind like washing machines, induction heaters, solar lamps and bicycles which have been authorised, but not distributed since one and a half years now” he said. 

He added that these benefits were introduced by the previous Congress government. In its term, the implementation of the benefits was not efficient, but the present BJP government has failed to even constitute a board, and therefore there is no chairman to look after any proceedings under such sanctions, he said. 

The board has also made provisions like giving scholarships to up to two of any worker’s children, providing funds for marriage, providing assistance in delivery for pregnant women, providing pension and instating a compensatory amount of 1 lakh on natural death and 2 lakh upon death during the work period. 

Speaking to Newsclick, Singh said, “Nearly 4,000 workers get to avail these benefits in this area, and most of them are women and elderly workers who travel from remote areas of the district to sustain their family. Even though these benefits are very crucial for the workers, the government seems to not care enough to even distribute these items which are already at the office of the Labour Department somewhere.” 

When inquired about the delay in distribution of the said items, he said, “Well it’s told to us that the IPH Minister, Mr. Mahender Singh, has given a strict verbal order to the Department that these items will only be distributed when he is present in the office. And you must also note that this area is his own constituency, and he has not visited this area since the BJP came to power.”

At least 200 workers – most of whom were women – took part in the protest, and entered the Labour department’ office in Mandi with posters and banners demanding that their authorised items should be distributed to them. They said that until and unless the labour officer gave them in written that they would receive their items, they would not leave the office.

After spending almost five hours negotiating with the officers, the labour officer present gave it in writing that the articles will reach their respective panchayats on September 16, after which they will be distributed among the workers. 

“We have received his word in written. It is sad that to even get the sanctioned articles, which are sanctioned by the government itself, we have to resort to protests, but we will continue to struggle for the rights of workers and the labourers,” said Singh.