People's Democracy

THE CPI(M)’s Delhi state committee has strongly condemned the imposition of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the struggling workers of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) by the lieutenant governor of Delhi and demanded immediate withdrawal of this draconian measure. This order is a heinous attack on the democratic rights of the workers, aimed at cowing them down into submission. The CPI(M) has appealed to all democratic parties, mass organisations and individuals to raise their voice against this attempt to crush the struggle of the Jal Board employees.

The workers of Delhi Jal Board, under the leadership of the Municipal Workers Lal Jhanda Union, have been agitating for long for their eminently justifiable demands. Unfortunately, the Jal Board and Delhi government have adopted a totally obdurate attitude towards their demands. This has forced the workers to decide on a programme of one-day mass casual leave which the imposition of ESMA is seeking to thwart.

A major demand of the workers is about a halt to privatisation of the Jal Board. This demand concerns not just the workers but has a crucial bearing on the interests of the citizens of Delhi as well. Privatisation of the Jal Board will imply a rise in water tariffs without any guarantee of improvement in services and availability of water. Such has been experience of privatisation of civic facilities in different states. The Delhi government recently privatised power distribution, ignoring the disastrous experience of similar steps in states like Orissa. Such measures indicate criminal abdication by the government of its responsibility to provide civic facilities to the people and are nothing but a formula for looting the people to shore up private profits.

The CPI(M) statement concluded with a reiteration of the demand for immediate withdrawal of the ESMA imposed on the DJB workers and a reaffirmation of solidarity with the struggling workers. (INN)