Fishermen using mechanised vessels (trawlers and purse-seine) in coastal Karnataka called off their strike on Thursday after holding massive protest rallies in Udupi and Mangaluru on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

“We will wait for a week or so to get the reaction from the government to our demands, including our opposition to direct benefit transfer (DBT) of subsidy, before chalking out further course of action,” said Nithin Kumar, President of Manglore Trawl Boat Meenugarara Sangha. Members cannot be made to endlessly wait on the shore and be deprived of their income, he said.

About 150 vessels from Mangaluru Bunder have left on Thursday and gradually all vessels would leave after filling with diesel and ice. There is shortage of ice too, Mr. Kumar said. Vessels would take at least a week to return to the shores, he added.

While the primary grouse is against DBT of subsidy, which hitherto was being reflected in subsidised rates of diesel at the rate of 300 litres per day per vessel, fishermen also have been demanding increase in the daily quota to 600 litres, abolition of the one ration card, one vessel rule and many more.

Thiruvananthapuram: MLA V. Sivankutty and ten other SFI workers were injured in a clash as a protest against the delay in the distribution of school textbooks turned violent on Monday.

The police resorted to lathi charge and used several round of tear gas shells during a confrontation in front of University Senate campus and Palayam church. Water canons were also pressed to action to bring the situation under control.

Mr Sivankutty who had reached the city to dissuade workers against drastic action was also caught in the fight and injured his knees in the stone pelting that ensued between the protesters and police.

Several media personnel and few civil police officers were also injured. The police have registered cases against around hundreds of identifiable men.

Violence was also reported from Kozhikode when SFI activists and police clashed in front of the directorate of distance education office in the city on the issue of the delay in textbook distribution.

MUMBAI: Over 4,000 doctors from public hospitals are on an indefinite strike in Maharashtra, they are demanding better pay, work hours and security from the government.

At 8am this morning, resident doctors of 14 public medical colleges including three municipal-body run hospitals have decided to stay off work until the government accepts their demand in writing.

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors have been demanding an increase in stipend, paid leave of two months for those undergoing tuberculosis treatment and two months paid maternity leave among others. They have also been demanding regular work hours not exceeding 8 hours and better security by installing CCTV cameras in hospitals.

The president of the resident doctor's association, Sagar Mundada, told, "Out of the 10 demands we put forth to minister Vinod Tawde on June 12, only 4 were mentioned in the minutes of the meeting. None of the main demands were mentioned and we haven't received any written confirmation or time-bound commitment."

Officials at Mumbai's only government hospital, JJ Hospital have made temporary arrangements for professors and interns to help, but a prolonged strike is a cause of worry.

"We have ensured that OPD and emergency services aren't affected, but if the strike continues it is likely to hamper services. We postponed 20% of the routine surgeries today", said Dr. Tatya Rao Lahane of the JJ Hopital.

However, patients are feeling the impact of the strike.

"I have come all the way from Nashik because I was given today's date. Now I have been asked to come back on the 6th of July. It cost me money and I had to take an off from work. Now I will have to come back at a later date", said Narendra Borse who had come to JJ hospital for a sonography.

In order to break the deadlock, Medical Education Minister Vinod Tawde has called a meeting with the doctors at 5pm this evening.

So far doctors are in no mood to relent till their demands are met. They are planning to organise a candle march around KEM Hospital in Mumbai tomorrow.

Moodabidre: Electricity supply was highly suffered due to the protest staged by electricity contract workers here.
The electricity contract workers staged a protest condemning the new law enforced by the government regarding the electrical contract work.

The workers are on agitation since three days to maintain the earlier rules of small contract works instead of one big contract. As the contract workers refused to repair electrical problems the Mescom officials and the public faced problem.

 

 

 

 

 

Mumbai: Commuters in Mumbai faced a harrowing time as auto-rickshaws and taxis drivers attached with 'Swabhiman Union' began a day-long strike in the metro city from this morning to press for their demands.

The 'Swabhiman Union' claims it has 18,000 auto rickshaw owners and 12,000 taxi owners as its members.

"The day long strike which will end at 5 PM, is only an alarm to the state government and if our demands are not met, then the union would be forced to launch an intensive agitation," said K K Tiwari, Mumbai President of Swabhiman Union.

Earlier, it had dashed off a letter to Maharashtra transport commissioner with a copy to state transport minister Diwakar Raote and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on June 9, demanding to ban the entry of mobile application driven cabs such as Uber, Ola, Meru Plus etc.

The Union in the said letter had threatened to go on a strike from June 15 if their their demands were not met.

"We have even got the support from rickshaw and taxi owners who are not our members, because we have raised issues that cater to their demand too," Tiwari said.
Interestingly, the largest union of taxi owners in the city led by A L Quadros has not supported this strike.

The largest auto union in the city led by Shashank Rao has said it will go on a strike from June 17.

Mangaluru:  Family that is affected by the humiliation, assault, insult, mental harassment and threat since one and half years by Hindustan Petroleum Company has announced an indefinite hunger strike from 13-5-2015. And the family is Hunger strike from affected people from HPCLclaiming that they don’t have any means to earn their food and asking for Mercy Killing. They protested in front of the regional office of the company in Mangaluru.

Mangaluru: Bus services in undivided Dakshina Kannada are unlikely to be affected during the 24-hour nation-wide strike called by the motor transport sector on Thursday opposing the Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2015.

Autorickshaw services on the other hand are likely to be affected in the region.

Since the districts are predominantly served by private buses and the Federation of Private Bus Operators of Karnataka has decided not to participate in the strike, normal services could be expected.

Federation president K. Rajavarma Ballal said that operators are expecting some amendments to the bill and hence are not participating in the strike. A similar view was expressed by taxi operators in the region.

Support

However, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has said that all transport workers would participate in the strike. CITU district general secretary Vasanth Achari and CITU Bus Workers’ Union President Ashok said that the workers would oppose the bill since it severely impacts the labour class.

Autorickshaw operators would participate in the strike and the services would be affected, said Mohammed Ansar, district general secretary of the autorickshaw drivers’ union. He said the drivers are completely opposed to the proposed hefty penalties proposed in the bill.

KSRTC services affected

Meanwhile, KSRTC bus services are bound to be affected in the region as well as across the State following the employees participating in the strike. However, services are likely to be resumed by late Thursday evening including night services.

New Delhi: Indian jewellers threatened on Monday to go on strike over a government plan that would require customers to quote their tax code for major purchases as part of a clampdown on the black economy.

Jewellers say about 80 per cent of the $122 billion industry's business comes from rural customers, mainly in the agriculture sector, who lack a so-called permanent account number (PAN), which is used to prevent tax evasion.

Presenting his budget on February 28 for the next fiscal year that starts on April 1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said PAN would become compulsory for sales of more than 100,000 rupees ($1,592) to prevent the circulation of "black money" - a key political challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 10-month-old government.

However, the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), a grouping of 600,000 businesses, denied that illegal money was rife in the jewellery industry where artisans add value to gold coins and bars.

GJF's chairman-elect called for talks with the government and said the federation's members would not wait too long before taking to the streets again, as they did in a three-week strike in 2012 that forced a rollback of a levy on unbranded jewellery.

"This is a very strong organisation and all of us are together," Manish Jain told a press conference. "As of now we are pacifying our members. But we want conversations with the government and have sought time from the finance minister."

The Finance Ministry could not be reached for comment.

No businessperson likes to lose a customer, so paper-less dealings will rise with those who do not have a PAN, Jain said.

The alternative of asking customers to show a government-issued identity card and fill out a form would contradict Modi's stated intention of making it easier to do business in India, Jain added.

A panel of the Reserve Bank of India said in 2013 that even the previous rule of furnishing a PAN number for transactions above 500,000 rupees was not fool-proof and "many jewellery shops flout that norm with impunity".

Indians buy an average of 2.3 tonnes of jewellery a day and imports can hit up to 1,000 tonnes a year, the highest in the world, draining foreign currency and boosting smuggling.