PREPAK warns against depriving workers of benefits
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 21 2020:
Saying that it has learnt about some Government officials swindling benefits of a scheme which was launched by the Government on April 9 this year to provide certain aids to marginal workers in the wake of the protracted COVID-19 lockdown, the proscribed PREPAK has asked all concerned to stop depriving workers of their rights and benefits.
A statement issued by the outfit's publicity and propaganda secretary in-charge Leibaak Ngaakpa Luwang noted that workers and peasants of Kangleipak have been reeling under extreme misery on account of the lockdown.
Their misery has been further aggravated by the partisan and discriminatory attitude of Government officials but the oppressors never share any empathy towards the oppressed in the entire history of mankind, it remarked.
In the face of the fast disappearing work culture, extensive corruption and the ever growing number of people bent on looting public money, workers have lost the perspective of living their life independently.
On the contrary, many workers have embraced the notion of being dependent on others.
In place of a vibrant work culture, a malignant culture of looting public money is becoming rampant in the State.
As a result, a number of public sector undertakings have either become defunct or liabilities.
Subsequently, many of these public sector undertakings have been converted into corporations, it said.
The situation of people working in private firms, factories, shops, media houses and companies is also equally hapless.
Their wages are very small and they don't enjoy any kind of social security.
Under the misplaced policies of the alien Government, the situation of peasants and workers is also growing from bad to worse and their profession is unable to provide their daily needs, the outfit said.
Farmers and workers can no longer see their profession with any dose of pride.
Farmers do not feel any pride in selling their own produces in markets and it is a matter of grave concern for everyone, it said.
When the producers feel ashamed of their own profession and consumers take undue pride in buying the produces, the economy is heading towards a complete breakdown, the outfit asserted.
Apart from creating a bourgeois class, the idea of which is completely alien to the soil of Kangleipak, the education policy of India is unable to provide suitable jobs or professions to youngsters thereby destroying invaluable human resources of the land, it alleged.
The Government of India has been scheming continuously to destroy human resources, exploit natural resources, trigger internecine killings and transform the entire Manipuri Nation as a consumer society so that it can never stand on its own feet, the outfit continued.
In the backdrop of opening of WESEA to South East Asian countries, people of the region should concentrate on the 'sustenance question' rather than on the 'survival question' by cultivating a vibrant work culture where workers and producers are given due respect, it said.
PREPAK then declared that it always stands for the oppressed class, peasants and workers.
It further asked all private firms/sectors/factories/industries to pay wages of its workers/employees in time and ensure their dignity.
Financial assistance assured to workers and peasants under different schemes in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown should be released in time, it added.
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