Remove discriminatory GOs issued by DMK regime, plea by unorganized workers

Chennai;

Unorganised workers on Tuesday urged Tamil Nadu government to cancel the Government Orders 122, 123 and 124 issued by the previous DMK regime which is discriminatory in nature and acts as a stumbling block in registration of workers.

Unorganised Workers Federation state secretary R Leelavathi and and the advisor of the federation Geetha Ramakrishnan told Express during a seminar on comprehensive protection, welfare boards, right to life for unorganised sector workers at Egmore Railway Kalyana Mandapam that the three GOs are in line with a weak central legislation which is being proposed to be amended.

The new GOs has resulted in thousands of unorganized workers being denied registeration besides making the whole process of registration  cumbersome. “We are awaiting response from the government as prior to elections AIADMK cadres has promised to do away with the GOs to protect the rights of unorganized workers,” said Leelavathi. 

The process has not only resulted in delay in registration but also loss of registration certificates, she added.

Geetha also said that there is a delay of more than three months in workers getting their due benefits from the government and stressed the need for transparency besides highlighting the welfare boards should assist the workers in opening up of zero account

Leelavathi said that the state government should remove the clause of making it mandatory for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe workers to have caste certificates besides calling for the need to allocate Rs 50 crore from the central allocation and an additional Rs 100 crore from the state coffer for the social security of unorganized workers.

Geetha said thousands of crores have been denied to construction workers with the non-implementation of central government act by collecting a cess of one per cent on central government constructions.

She also said the government should provide identity cards to workers according to their occupation and not just give it to the head of the family. “The names of those who were issued the cards should be entered into a computer to avoid duplication,” she added.