New Delhi: Central trade unions slammed the finance ministry for not having a proper pre-budget consultation meet with them on Saturday, raising strong objection to absence of the Union Finance Minister for the first time and demanded a physical meeting with longer duration.
They have said this meeting was an "insult" to central trade unions (CTUs) and termed it a "farce exercise and mockery on the part of the ministry".
The virtual pre-consultation meeting, which lasted for 1 hour and 15 minutes and was chaired by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, on Saturday also witnessed technical glitches.
The CTUs also strongly objected to the presence of industry representatives in the deliberations with them.
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) General Secretary Binoy Kumar Sinha told PTI, "We are sorry to note that today a pre-budget discussion with trade unions was invited by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman but she did not attend this meeting. Only MOS (minister of state) and officials of the Finance Ministry joined the meeting. This meeting was also attended by organisations like CII, FICCI etc. This is an insult to the central trade unions."
Also Read: UP Cabinet to table supplementary budget today; addition of new schemes focused on infrastructure, youth likely
He went on to say that "this is the first occasion when a (pre-budget) meeting was held without FM. It seems that the government has no importance of CTUs. We demand redressal by holding an immediate physical meeting with CTUs."
The pre-budget consultation meeting is an annual exercise ahead of the general budget to get feedback from different sections of society including industry bodies and trade unions.
Echoing similar views, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said in a statement, "The so-called exercise of pre-budget consultation by the Finance Ministry with the trade unions today was a farce exercise and mockery on the part of the ministry."
"Having invited about 14 unions and fixing a time of 3 pm to 4.15 pm in total, in which they also invited a CII representative who was not supposed to be in the consultation meeting with trade unions, the whole exercise became a joke," he rued.
About allotment of inadequate time to CTU representatives to express their views, Kaur said, "...(they) allotted three minutes each on such an important subject and then the chronological order of speakers not respected, and even disconnection resulted in case of some including the speaker from AITUC shows contempt of this government towards working class."
The government is in a hurry to subvert the public sector in favour of Indian and foreign corporates and to scuttle and stifle the voices of trade unions who represent millions of workers, he added. "We demand physical meeting and for a longer duration for us to explain our viewpoint."
Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) General Secretary Harbhajan Singh Sidhu also lashed out at the finance ministry for not giving adequate time to trade union representatives and also raised strong objections to the absence of Sitharaman in the meeting.
PTI
