Minister's letter to the District Magistrate

Following is the text of the letter, translated from the Hindi by T.K. Rajalakshmi, that Heera Singh Bisht, the Uttaranchal Labour, Transport and Technical Education Minister, sent on July 30, 2005, to R.K. Sudhanshu, District Magistrate, Haridwar:

"Please respond to the memorandum submitted by the CITU which is addressed to the Honourable Chief Minister and refers to the oppression of workers at the Divya Yog Ashram Trust, Kankhal, Haridwar. On 21.5.2005, an agreement was arrived at through a tripartite dialogue involving the district administration, the trust management and the Labour Department. It now appears that the trust management is going back from this decision as a result of which the workers are getting increasingly agitated and the police is putting pressure on them, which is improper. This is coming in the way of industrial peace. It is my understanding that if the agreement is not implemented immediately and any untoward incident occurs in the future, it would be sad and unfortunate for the government. The Honourable Chief Minister is concerned about this issue and expects immediate resolution. Therefore, keeping in mind the gravity of the issue, you are requested to take up on a priority basis the implementation of the agreement and ensure that the workers are not harassed in any manner."

Copies were sent to CITU general secetary Chittabrata Majumdar and the Haridwar Assistant Labour Commissioner. The latter was requested to get in touch with the District Magistrate for the resolution of the problem.