Call for Panchayat Reforms and Early Elections

Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity welcomes Calcutta High Court’s verdict which clears the way for the immediate holding of Panchayat elections.  While Panchayats are still far away from being people’s Panchayats and often remain under the control of different political parties and local vested interests, a further delaying of Panchayat elections will lead to powers of local decision-making being handed over to the BDO and other bureaucrats. This is definitely not an advisable course of action and a scenario worse than the present one, with all its limitations.

In addition to having timely Panchayat elections, we appeal to all our legislators and our people to start thinking about reforms in the Panchayat laws which will make them truly pro-people Panchayats. The reforms are as follows:

• Make the fourth tier of the Panchayat Raj institutions, the Gram Sansad, the most powerful of all the tiers. This would mean holding monthly or bi-monthly meetings with the Gram Sansad, the assembly of all local voters in a booth; consulting them for all decisions; and making all local institutions (the local ration shop, the ICDS centre, the health sub centre etc.) accountable to this body

• Let us not have just one Gram Unnayan committee or beneficiary committee with 10-15 voters for the five years tenure of a Panchayat. Let separate beneficiary committees be set up for the monitoring of each new scheme. These would mean that 50-100 villagers would be involved in the monitoring of all schemes making corruption and partisan decision making that much more difficult. This would also mean the involvement of many more people in the development of their villages;

• Give more funds in the hands of the Gram Panchayat. While 70% of our people continue to live in villages, the funds provided for them are only 2-5% of the GDP, a tinyamount compared to requirements, leading to the persistence of rural poverty;
• To improve the kinds of candidates that are put up by political parties , make Right to Reject an option on the EVM i.e. the “None of the Above” button should be put as an option if people do not like any candidate; 

The Right to Recall which already exists in 3-4 states of India should be legislated so that voters will be granted a right to recall an under-performing/non performing/corrupt representative before his 5 year term ends.Let us also look for candidates beyond parties - let the voters of a village come together and choose their candidates (if possible by consensus) not because the person is supported by one party or the other but because he or she is the best person they can find for their village.

We reiterate our appeal for early Panchayat elections and Panchayat reforms.

Anuradha Talwar, Bela Adak  ,Swapan Ganguly and Uttam Gayen

(on behalf of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity)

Documentary -- Our Panchayat: An Introspection

As the elections in West Bengal are around the corner, this is a documentary Produced by 'Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity' and Directed by Akash Sharma and Akhil Shukla on the Gram Panchayat System travelling across the villages of Bengal highlighting various problems in NREGA, PDS, pension, gram sabha etc.

The main aim of the documentary was to provide solutions and reforms like having a non-party panchayat, right to recall/reject, 4 tier decentralized panchayat, and more independence to the Gram Panchayat itself. Hopefully, the documentary will make the people more conscious about their surroundings and the will gather confidence to vote for change.

The documentary is completely in Bengali because of its rural target audience.

March 8 Rally: A Mixed Bag of Promises And Rejections

Four thousand women from 11 independent trade unions and mass organisations marched from Sealdah to Esplande in Kolkata on the occasion of International Women’s Day, highlighting problems faced by women workers working in the informal sector. The women marched to demand strict measures on sexual harassment at workplace, minimum wages for all workers, including women who are employed under government programmes and working as Anganwadi workers and helpers, ASHA workers, mid-day meal cooks, link workers and those employed in tea gardens; regularization of casual and contractual Government workers; a stop to arbitrary sacking of women; social security benefits for all workers; and provision of worksite facilities, such as toilets, drinking water and crèches. The workers also highlighted the government’s refusal to register trade unions formed by women, specifically sex workers and domestic workers and the arbitrary manner in which hawkers were being treated in the absence of a State Hawkers’ Policy.

At the end of their march, while some of the women joined a public meeting organized by Maitree, a women’s network working on gender issues in West Bengal, others joined a protest by the Soni Sori Mukti Manch to demand release of Soni Sori and other such women prisoners.

A delegation also met with the Labour Minister of the State, Mr Purnendu Basu, in the evening for over an hour. On the issue of Minimum Wage, a demand for a floor level minimum wage of Rs. 400 (as per calculations of the 15^th ILC and Supreme Court Orders) was made. The Minister outrightly refused this demand and disagreed with our calculations. The issue of the minimum wage in agriculture being fixed at Rs. 167, as against Rs. 217 in other rural industries was also raised as being too low, which the Minister was not able to justify. He also stated that they had demanded that the Central Government declare Rs.171 as the minimum wage in NREGS works, but was not able to give the logic for this.  The delegation also demanded Minimum wages for all Government employees, including midday meal cooks, ASHA, Anganwadi, link workers in health, trained dai and other workers who work under Government programmes, which the Labour Minister asked us to raise with the Central Government, as these were all schemes under the Centre.

The issue of increasing casualisation and contractualisation of workers and the need for their regularization in the case of Government employees was also bought to his notice, to which the Minister agreed in principle, but showed his helplessness due to the huge debt that had been run up by the previous Government. Again we were advised to meet the Central Government and to organise an all India movement.

One of the most important discussion was on state government’s refusal to register trade unions formed by women, that of sex workers, domestic workers. The response in this regard was not positive, as the State asked us again to take up the demand with the Central Government as the Trade Union Act falls under their purview.

On a more positive note, the Minister told us that they had already taken positive steps on a state policy for hawkers, with a State Government sponsored Bill which they plan to pass soon in the State Legislature.

The demand for social security for all unorganised workers was received positively, with the Minister promising to immediately enlist all names put forward by the unions and mass organizations present under the State Assisted Scheme of Provident Fund for Unorganised Workers in West Bengal (SASPFUW) from his office itself if the requisite papers were given. Important issues of Sexual Harassment at workplaces, including government worksites such as NREGS and Construction sites and provision of worksite facilities, such as toilets, drinking water and crèches were met with seriousness, with promises that they would be looked into.

Participating organisations include New Trade Union Initiative and its affiliates such as Binodini Shramik Union, All Bengal Sales Representative Union and Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, along with other mass organsaitions and unions such as Hawkers Sangram Committee,  Shramajivi Mahila Samity, Bagan Suraksha Committee (Jalpaiguri), Gogo Gaonta (Birbhum),  Paschim Banga Swarojgari O Raduni Union, Paschim Banga Nirmaan Shilpa Shramik Union ( Organising Committee), Shramajivi Samnvay Committee, , West Bengal Government Employees Union (Nabaparjaya) and Durbar Disha Mahila Griha Shramik Samanvay Committee

(Asta Bala Maity)   (Rama Debnath)
Karmajivi Mahila Parishad (Organising Committee)

Court Orders Payment Of Dues

Reprimanding the State Government for not paying minimum wages to workers in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Kolkata High Court passed its final order in WP 16913(W) of 2009 filed by Paschim Banga Khet Majur Samity (PBKMS) on 7th January 2013. It ordered the State Government to not make such a mistake in the future. The State Government has also not disputed that it has not paid minimum wages and has thus admitted its mistake. The court has asked the State Government to pay the balance amount to all workers who apply for the same.

According to the petitioner, the Government of West Bengal did not pay statutory minimum wages to MGNREGS workers in 2009. Workers were paid Rs.81 per day when the declared legal agricultural minimum wage was Rs.87.50 in West Bengal. Section 6(2) of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, states that until wage rate for the purpose of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is specified by the Central Government, the minimum wage fixed by the State Government under Section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for agricultural labourers, shall be considered as the wage rate applicable for NREGS works. PBKMS therefore contended that each NREGS worker in West Bengal has been paid Rs.6.50 less than his/her legal entitlement from January to December 2009, and had claimed that the State Government must pay Rs. 71.82 crores for 1105.02 lakhs of person days of employment to NREGS workers.

 
The PBKMS has declared that all its members and all other NREGS workers will apply for the remaining amount from the State Government and if they meet with refusal, the union will again move for contempt of court against the State Government.