Hyderabad: With the parliament session set to be reconvened on March 8, the Telangana gulf joint action committee on Sunday submitted a petition to two Congress MPs on the issue of referral wages of gulf workers being reduced by the central government.
The delegation met Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla at the Jantar Mantar’s farmers support camp in Delhi. They submitted a petition for rolling back of the “regressive order that reduces the minimum wages for Indian labour in Gulf countries by 40%. By the central government”
Later, they sat in the camp and displayed placards.
Representatives of various organizations and individuals representing Gulf workers embarked on a ‘Chalo Delhi’ program on Saturday. A ten-member delegation of Gulf JAC departed from Telangana to Delhi by train.
For the last six months, Gulf workers and their associations have been raising the issue since the Government of India issued circulars reducing the minimum referral wages for Gulf workers. There is no response from the Center despite numerous appeals to repeal these circulars and maintain the old wages.
In the letter that the Gulf JAC has submitted to MPs, it pointed out that the circulars of the ministry of external affairs on September 8 and 21, 2020, the minimum referral wages (MRWs) of Indians who work in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman have been reduced to $200 and for the UAE to $324. It said the government’s decision destroys the livelihoods of the workers and dreams of current and prospective emigrants.
Gulf JAC leaders Swadesh Parkipandla, Guggilla Ravi Goud and Thota Dharmender briefed the MPs regarding the loss to workers due to the 30 to 50 per cent pay cut.
MPs said that a pay cut would cause financial loss to 88 lakh Indian workers in the Gulf countries in the near future and has assured the gulf worker that the issue would be raised in the parliament and would meet the external affairs minister.