Majithia Award: it is as dismal in Madhya Pradesh as in other states

The story of Madhya Pradesh is no different from other states as far as the implementation of the Majithia Wage Award. Till date only six states viz. Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Sikkim have filed their status reports. The situation is in Madhya Pradesh is dismal and the condition of the newspaper employees is as pathetic, if not more, as in other states.

The report filed with the affidavit of Shri K.C. Gupta, Labour Commissioner of Government of Madhya Pradesh at Indore tells the sordid saga of exploitation of the Employees by the newspaper owners in Madhya Pradesh. However, the Labour Department of Madhya Pradesh has done a good job by filing the case of prosecution against the newspaper owners in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrates of different districts.

Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Rewa, Sagar and Satna are the major publication centres of newspapers in Madhya Pradesh. Nai Dunia, Raj Express, Dainik Bhaskar, Free Press, Patrika, Hindustan Times and Swadesh are the main newspapers, which are published from the state, but none of these newspapers has been found to have implemented the Wage Award.

Dainik Bhaskar has adopted the same ruse of Section-20j in all its publication of Madhya Pradesh, which it has adopted in other states. Not to be outdone, the same tactics has been adopted by Nai Dunia, which has now been taken over by the largest selling newspaper of the Country i.e. Dainik Jagran. Some of the newspapers have sought time to furnish the information about the implementation of the Award but there is not even a shred of doubt on one score that no newspaper has provided the benefits of the Majithia Wage revision to their employees in Madhya Pradesh.

Parmanand Pandey
Secy. Gen.
IFWJ