Majithia Award: All is Hunky-dory in Uttarakhand; Says Government

The Uttarakhand Government has filed Majithia status report in the Supreme Court of India through its Principal Secretary, Ms. Manisha Panwar. The report says that no employee or employees’ union of any newspaper has filed any complaint against any newspaper in the state. The report further says that the publishers of the Dainik Hindustan newspaper, M/s Hindustan Media Venture Ltd. have implemented the Award in its both units of Dehradun and Haldwani. However, it does not mention about the class of newspaper.

The Labour Inspector has obviously accepted the version of the Management without any ifs and buts that all employees in Dehradun unit have also been paid the arrears. The report further says that there are 68 employees working for the Hindustan; out of them 30 are journalists/multimedia content staffs, 10 are in the managerial/supervisory/ administrative capacity and 28 are non-journalists.

Another major newspaper of the state is Dainik Jagran, which has been repeating the same story of Section 20J for its employees of Uttarakhand also. The report says that there are 96 employees in its Dehradun and Haldwani units who have already opted for 20J. The minimum that was expected from the State Government was to have at least questioned the validity of 20J but nothing has done at all by the Inspecting officers.

According to report Amar Ujala has paid wages and allowances to all employees as per Majithia Award. Arrears amounting to nearly Rs. 18.5 lakh have also been distributed to its employees at Dehradun. Similarly, arrears have been paid in two installments to the employees of Haldwani but amount is not made known. Rashtriya Sahara is the only newspaper, according to the report, which has not implemented the Award. Therefore, the officers have been directed to take legal action against the newspapers.

Parmanand Pandey
Secretary General
IFWJ