CITU calls for strike in support of farmers

Leftist organisations have called for a national strike on September 2 to protest labour and farmers’ issues. The strike call has been given by CITU and supported by the Kisan Sabha, which announced in Nashik that over 2,000,000 farm labourers would strike work in the fields throughout India. This was announced during the national executive convention of CITU, in Nashik. State politburo member and CITU state general secretary Dr D.L. Karad presided over the meeting.

CITU general secretary MP Tapan Sen claimed that the government was burdening the common people to extricate the country from economic disaster. This burden has severely affected agriculture, industry and other sectors.

“The government claims that it has helped open 15 crore bank accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme but farmers’ suicides and inflation have not been contained. Farm production has come down by 12 million tonnes compared to 2013-14. The development rate of business and industry too has dropped and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is claiming development rate of 7 per cent,” Sen claimed.

CITU state president Narasayya Adam urged all workers and farmers to join the strike. He alleged that the Modi government was against workers.

The CITU convention demanded that government should not forcibly acquire land for the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, a special committee should be formed to help start closed industries, white paper should be published on labour laws’ implementation, apprentices should be made permanent etc.