AITUC meet begins in Karimnagar, Kaur calls for united fight for workers' rights
AITUC's Amarjeet Kaur opened the party's 4th State conference in Karimnagar, urging mass mobilisation to counter policies she says undermine workers.
The fourth State conference of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) got underway in Karimnagar on Sunday, with the union's general secretary, Amarjeet Kaur, setting the tone for the three-day deliberations by calling for a sustained movement to protect workers' rights.
Addressing a public meeting at the Circus Grounds on the inaugural day, Kaur alleged that the policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre were weakening labour laws and favouring select corporate houses at the cost of the working class. She asserted that workers, farmers, and the youth were confronting serious challenges in employment, education, and livelihood.
Highlighting the recent student protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Kaur said the demonstrations reflected the growing anxiety among young people over the lack of quality public education and job opportunities. She urged for mass mobilisation and prolonged struggles to defend the hard-won rights of the working class and to safeguard the interests of farmers, women, and other marginalised sections.
Kaur also stressed the need to protect constitutional values and the country's secular fabric, which she claimed were under threat. The conference, she said, would deliberate on the issues confronting the working class and evolve strategies for collective action.
Earlier in the day, workers, including daily-wage labourers and farm workers, took out a rally in the town under the AITUC's banner to mark the commencement of the conference. CPI State secretary and Kothagudem MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao was among those who spoke at the event.