Aaditya Thackeray announces equal pay for equal work for the pre-monsoon season

A recent report in a leading news daily suggested that pre-monsoon staff were not being paid equally. Maharashtra cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter to clarify the air about this matter. As per the report women were not getting paid as much as the men for doing the pre-monsoon work in the city of Mumbai.

Hi @MumbaiMirror I read the news piece in today’s edition about pre monsoon work staff- men & women not being paid equally for that work. I have spoken to concerned officials and requested them to check on it and rectify it right away. (1/n)

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) May 17, 2020

Thackeray thanking the media outlet Mumbai Mirror, stated that he believes in the ideology of equal work and equal pay. Thackeray added that he has spoken to the concerned officials to ensure that both the men and the women are paid equally for the effort they are putting behind the pre-monsoon work.

In the past, the Shiv Sena MLA had spoken about the pre-monsoon work undertaken by the BMC. Thackeray frequently holds zoom video meetings with the BMC officers along with Municipal Commissioner for the preparations of the onset of the monsoon and to complete the essential pre-monsoon works in time.

The BMC has decided to not start digging or repair any of the new roads as it announced its focus at the moment to only be on completing the ongoing road repair works before the onset of monsoon. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), monsoon is expected to arrive in the city by June 11 and is likely to stay on till October 08. Given this schedule, BMC has little time to complete its monsoon preparedness work.

Currently, in the middle of the extended lockdown period announced recently, repair and maintenance work on major and minor roads along with that of ambitious Coastal Road work was hit. As a consequence of most of the workforce being deployed to deal with the coronavirus crisis, a lot of the pre-monsoon work that usually takes place every year has taken a backseat. However, work has started there with a minimum work-force at the Coastal Road site. At many sites work may not start until the lockdown period ends given the labour shortage.