People's Democracy

THE CPI(M)'s Delhi state committee has urged the workers and owners of industrial units in non-conforming areas to unitedly resist the conspiracy to remove such units en masse from Delhi. This is necessary if the attack on the livelihood of lakh of people is to be successfully fought back.

It is unfortunate that owners of several units, which have been sealed, are not paying wages to their workers. These include wages for the period prior to the sealing of these units. This, the state committee said, cannot be condoned. If the owners want cooperation of their workers in this battle that involves the interests of both sections, they must pay wages to their workers. Failing this, the workers will have no option but to fight on two fronts --- against the perfidy of the central and state governments and against the owners.

The CPI(M) condemned the central and state governments for attacking the livelihood of lakh of workers through their complicity in the ongoing closure of industrial units in non-conforming areas of Delhi. Nobody is fooled by the crocodile tears being copiously shed by BJP and Congress leaders. The BJP-led central government could easily have got the parliament to pass a legislation overcoming the Supreme Court order. Instead, it repeatedly asserted that its sacrosanct cabinet decision to get rid of all industries in non-conforming areas would not be changed. Both the BJP and the Congress are playing a dual game --- attacking and causing grievous injury to the workers on the one hand and pretending to apply balm to the wounds on the other.

The CPI(M) statement said the party is not insensitive to the issue of pollution. It believes that all polluting and hazardous industries must be shut down and relocated in one specific zone, with provisions for pollution control mechanisms and steps to ensure the safety of workers employed there. Non-hazardous polluting industries should also be shifted but only after provision of relocation sites, development of proper infrastructural facilities and provision for housing. The CPI(M) state committee felt that no unit should be shut down till the above provisions are made. As for non-polluting industries in non-conforming areas, they must be allowed to stay at their present sites and the central government must change the Master Plan to ensure it. Not doing so will only mean driving the poor out of Delhi and converting it into an exclusive enclave of the rich. This cannot be allowed, the party added. (INN)