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Showing posts from November, 1973

NK's Post

Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...

The Statesman: Wages Of Trade Unionism

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NK SINGH The current labour trouble in the Delhi office of The Statesman has more than meets the eye. On the surface, it seems to be a simple case of labour-management scuffle plus intra-union rivalry. A closer look, however, shows that it is an instance of the rapprochement between the government and the industrial owners of newspapers- Tatas, Martin Burn and Andrew Yule in this case at the top and the understanding between the management and the unscrupulous labour leaders the CPI in this case at the level of labour relations. Further, it symbolises the wages of trade unionism. The entire concept of trade unionism has changed recently instead of fulfilling the dual role of providing temporary relief to workers and intensifying the class struggle it has become a tool in the hands of the exploiting classes for disrupting the solidarity of the working classes and diverting their struggle towards petty economic gains.  Consequently, a whole class of unscrupulous labour Meaders has, o...