Bengaluru: May Day was celebrated on Friday, with rallies, processions, felicitation programmes in the City.

Bike Rally
The Samatha Sainik Dal (SSD) and Republican Party of India (RPI) staged a bike rally from Town Hall to Freedom Park, where the office-bearers of SSD and RPI spoke about the plight of workers and indifference of government in solving the problems faced by labourers.

Other rallies:

Members of the May Day Committee of Trade Unions took out a procession from Town Hall to Shikshak Sadan. The Labour deapartment of the KPCC, also flagged off a rally started at Queens road and ended at Vidhana Soudha.

Fun activities:

It was not all processions and protests. Labour needs to have fun too, for as the saying goes, all work and no play make Jack a dull boy! Fun activities were  held for labourers by CREDAI for construction workers. Over 500 labourers took part in the sack race, running races, jump and throw events.

Awards and gifts:

In a May Day programme organised by Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Forum, school bags were distributed to the children of labourers for free, while Karmika awards were given away to a select 25 lab-ourers/workers from various fields including construction workers, taxi drivers, auto drivers among others.

And finally protests!

Workers’ unions in the unorganised sector, affiliated to South India Federation of Trade Unions, staged a protest condemning the gross violations of labour laws at CPWD construction site near Domlur flyover on Old Airport Road.

The agitating workers complained that the migrant workers deployed for constructing the General Pool Office Accommodation (GPOA) are living in a deplorable condition. The quarters accommodating the workers lack basic civic amenities including drinking water facility and toilets.