L-G returns Delhi govt’s file on revision of minimum wages

Lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung returned a file on revision of minimum wages to the Delhi government on Friday and asked it to reprocess the entire proposal.

Lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung returned a file on revision of minimum wages to the Delhi government on Friday and asked it to reprocess the entire proposal.

Relations between L-G Najeeb Jung and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have hit rock bottom.

Labour minister Gopal Rai, who met Jung at Raj Niwas, said while the L-G did not oppose the proposal ‘in principle’, he returned the file terming the 13-member wages fixation committee ‘illegal’ as prior approval for it was not taken.

The labour department, however, sent the proposal to constitute the committee later in the day after Rai held an emergency meeting with the department officials.

As per the existing government’s proposal, the minimum wages for unskilled person will be `14,052 against the existing `9,568 in the national capital. Besides, the same for semi-skilled and skilled persons will increase from `10,582 to `15,471 and from `11,622 to `17,033, respectively.

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“I requested L-G to give ex-facto approval to the formation of the committee as he was not against their recommendation and the formula adopted to revise the minimum wages. But he declined and has asked the government reprocess it. The exercise will delay the revision of minimum wages for sure,” Rai said.

The Delhi Cabinet had cleared the proposal on August 18 and it was sent for approval to L-G on August 24. On Thursday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal targeted the L-G for sitting on the file on directions of the BJP government at the Centre.

Attacking Jung for returning file on minimum wages on Friday, Kejriwal tweeted, “On a day when 18 crore workers are on strike, Modi’s LG returns file on minimum wages. (sic).”