Thursday, December 8 2005 14:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The cut in the EPF rate to 8.5 per cent stirred a hornet's nest in Parliament today (Dec 08, 2005) with Left parties and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) constituent like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joining hands with the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to demand its immediate restoration to 9.5 per cent.

The issue resulted in an uproar in the Lok Sabha with the opposition as also Left members and some members of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a constituent of the UPA coalition, protesting against the decision which they said would hit hard the 4.5 crore organised labour. This led to adjournment of the House till 1400 hours by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) member Dipankar Mukerjee said his party was giving a 'friendly warning' to the government not to throttle the interests of the workers especially when there was no social safety net in the country.

He was joined by not only Left members but opposition BJP, TDP, AIADMK and Samajwadi Party. The Left party members also demanded that government bring in a legislation at the earliest to protect the interests of unorganised labourers who are holding a demonstration in Parliament Street.

Voicing serious concern in the Lok Sabha, Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) said "the present government may kindly understand that trade unions and Left parties will no longer be a stamping machine of the government".

Responding to members concern, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachouri assured that nothing would be done by the UPA what went against the interests of the workers and he would convey members' sentiments to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Labour Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao.

In the Rajya Sabha, several members registered their protest over the issue with Digvijay Singh (JD-U) saying the Left parties were only barking and not biting.

He was joined by AIADMK member N Jyoti who said that if the CPI(M) felt strongly on the issue, all it has to do was to march to President A P J Abdul Kalam and withdraw support to the UPA government so that a good government could come to power at the Centre.

To this Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said it was because of the biting by the ruling coalition, the opposition NDA was now taking injection, as they would have to wait for five years to capture power.

"We shall continue to bite as and when it was necessary" he retorted.

In the Lok Sabha, Santosh Gangwar (BJP) regretted that government has failed to formulate an investment policy for the last one and half years. Basudev Acharya (CPI-M) demanded restoration of the EPF rate and a comprehensive legislation for welfare of Rs 37.5 crore unorganised labour. He accused the BJP of lowering the EPF rate from 12 per cent to 8.5 percent during its rule.

Ajoi Chakravarty (CPI) described as shocking and anti-people the decision and asked the government to review it immediately.