11/8/2010 For NREGA workers, it's a black Diwali t…

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For NREGA workers, it's a black Diwali this year

TNN, Nov 8, 2010, 04.27am IST

JAIPUR: The Udyog Maidan near Statue Circle was witness to a different kind of Diwali celebrations' on Thursday.

At the centre were two huge puppets carrying posters demanding minimum wages for NREGA workers while another one called for celebrating a
black diwali. The protest got louder at the background where NREGA workers from various parts of the district help up posters on the issue.

"It has been a unanimous decision from our side to celebrate black Diwali tomorrow. While the government officials, ministers, MPs and MLAs will
probably be celebrating after receiving a Diwali bonus or their pays being hiked manifolds, for the poor NREGA workers, it is a fight to ensure that
they just get their mere minimum wages," said Kamal Tonk of the Suchna Evum Rozgar ka Adhikar Abhiyan which is spearheading the protest.

The demonstrators have also send greetings to various politicians and bureaucrats congratulating them for the bonus given to them by the
government but said that since for them it is the other way round, and their wages are falling, it is a black diwali for them. The demonstrators will
be sitting at the collectorate with placards on Friday.

Meanwhile, activists of the Abhiyan have shot off a letter to Union rural development minister CP Joshi on his alleged "anti-labour attitude."

The letter blames the minister for allegedly misinforming the public while continuing to violate citizens fundamental rights and a court order. "CP
Joshi has repeatedly asserted that the government has obtained a Supreme Court stay on the Andhra Pradesh High Court order suspending the GoI
notification delinking NREGA wages from minimum wage. This assertion is false and the government of India has been making contempt of the
court for more than year," said Nikhil Dey of the Abhiyan.

"The National Advisory Council too in its last meeting on October 23 has recommended that workers should be paid minimum wages as notified
under Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The constitutional need to pay minimum wages is further endorsed not just by 15 of the most eminent jurists
and lawyers of the country but also by the Union government's own legal advisors, solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam and additional solicitor
general Indira Jaisingh. Finally, as per Union governments' own internal documents, the law ministry has opined that the Centre must bear the
full cost of NREGA as per the provisions of Section 22," Dey wrote in the letter to Joshi.

"It is evident that there is no room for further delay. Legal, political and judicial consensus mandates that minimum wages must be paid under the
NREGA. There is also the moral imperative of a democratic state to uphold constitutional values and thus immediately desist from perpetuating
"forced labour" while also respecting court orders," he says in the letter.

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