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Strikes – Holding people to ransom
By Nisser Dias
Strikes or bandhs seems to have become a common feature in the state and
any entity be it the bus drivers – (government or private), bus and
truck owners, shop owners, be it teachers, doctors, bank officials and
government officials abuse this democratic right to protest with
impunity. And in some cases, a notice of 24 hours for a bandh is even
not issued and then it is termed as flash strike.
Of course there are some cases when some are forced to join in a bandh
otherwise they are targeted or their establishment ransacked by hooligans.
But this sort of unlawful activities disrupt public life, derails
government functioning, causing huge loss of revenue to the exchequer
and more importantly causes discontentment among the general public and
instead of garnering support for a particular cause, generates resentment.
Last week for instance, bus owners, drivers and conductors on the
Margao-Canacona route refused to ply their buses, because one constable
allegedly slapped a conductor. Question here is why were the public at
large punished for a rash act on the part of the constable. On the same
day some activists from Sanguem to Quepem called for a bandh to demand a
by-pass, traffic movement was stopped and shops and establishments were
forced to down their shutters. Again the aam admi was troubled, if the
request was made to the PWD minister, he would be overjoyed to construct
the by-pass because it is rare that people give such an opportunity.
Again on the same day doctors at Goa Medical College resorted to a
strike to demand their sixth pay arrears and the outcome of it was the
poor, sick and the destitute had to suffer and bear the brunt of this
high handedness of the medical doctors.
Question is why should be general public or the tax payer have to pay
the price for government inefficiency, we pay our taxes, with which the
government is supposed to run the administration and affairs of the
state and also manage the finances, but it does not happen, over and
above the general public is put to hardship for mismanagement by the
government that we have elected.
There are yet other examples of holding the public to ransom to make the
government take notice of the problems; recently Schedule Tribe
community blocked the Mandovi bridges to make the government give in to
the demand. For more then two hours, traffic on both sides of the
bridges was paralyzed causing immense hardship to the public. Result of
which the sick and ailing be it young, old and even infants had to
suffer, working class of people especially the women were put to great
inconvenience. How can the public who is made to suffer be expected to
render support to the cause of the ST community.
Then comes the nationalized bank officials, who can bring the entire
economic activity of the country to a grinding halt, when they call for
a strike, of course in recent times with the introduction of private
banks and ATM facilities the impact is not much, infact with private
banks entry into the scene the sting of nationalized bank officials
calling for country wide bandh is vastly reduced, but still there is
huge population that still depend on nationalized banks for their
pensions, loans and other banking activity and by calling for indefinite
bandhs great injustice is caused to the very people who bank with them.
Teachers in government schools are the worse lot, they have no qualms
absolutely while calling for a bandh and they time it so well that it
coincides with the exams of the school children. The panic and the
trauma the parents and students have to undergo is just tremendous
thinking of the loss of the year.
Government officials have devised a new method of strike and it is
called, ‘pen down strike’. It means the government servants attend
official work sign the master roll showing their presence but refuse to
do any service. Over and above, they get paid for the day, but no
service has been carried out.
After putting the general public to hardship and inconvenience, do
doctors, teachers, bankers, traders, truck and bus owners solve their
issues once and for all is a question, because at the end of the strike
they accept the assurances of the ministers and resume duty only to
strike work some months later over the same issue. Why do these affected
employees not approach the courts to solve the impasse between them and
the government once and for all, instead of adopting irresponsible
methods that harm the economy of the country and put its citizens to
hardship.
Ineffective governing or administration has emboldened even small time
traders. To give an example in the city of Margao, there are two
markets, the new market and Gandhi market. A boy from Gandhi started
courting a girl from new market. As the girl did not respond to the
overtures and reported the matter to her brother, the youth took
objection and assaulted the girl’s brother. The president of the new
market association called for a bandh the very same day and forced the
shop owners and traders to down shutters, infact this band of hooligans
roamed the entire city armed with dandas to forcibly close shops and if
some shop owners resisted, their shops were looted and ransacked and the
police were mere spectators.
The government too plays a cruel joke on its citizens, whenever a strike
or a bandh is called, the government gives lip service of invoking
Essential Services Commodities Act (ESMA), to curb the strike, but never
does it and if at all it does, the employees get away scot free. The
answer to why the ministers do not enforce ESMA is simply because they
have their voters in the government departments and corporation and
these are the employees who canvass for bandhs, knowing very well they
will not be touched.
And given the fact that our literacy rate is quite low in our cabinet, I
do not think that our ministers can discuss and arrive at solutions that
dog different fraternities. Our ministers and MLAs or rather the
legislators are more interested in doing the duties of the panchayat and
zilla members like constructions of roads, bridges and drains or
inaugurals of bus stands, transformers and toilets or seeing their names
on foundation stones instead of legislating.
Hence till the government seriously starts applying its mind in putting
its house in order through proper legislations, administration and
applications of law, the common man will be at the receiving end of
strikes and bandhs called by teachers, bankers, doctors and even
vegetable vendors and truck drivers.
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First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - Feb 18, 2010
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