Strikes not best ways to resolve unrest: Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, Dec. 5 : Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that industrial strife, strikes and lockouts are not the best means to resolve unrest, adding that only peaceful tripartite dialogue can resolve such issues. “There is need to enlarge the space for resolving industrial problems through peaceful tripartite dialogue. Industrial strife, strikes and lockouts are not the best means to resolve unrest”, Singh said while addressing the 31st plenary session of the Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). He further said that the countrywide general strike on September 2 was a reflection of workers’ dissatisfaction with the “anti-labour and unimaginative economic policies of the NDA government.”In the name of structural labour reforms, efforts are being made to reduce the scope for secure industrial jobs in favour of contract labour and hire and fire approach,” he added.”There was broad consensus in the country that India’s economy needed to grow at an annual rate of about 8 per cent along with creating jobs”, he said while urging the trade union movement to take into account the fast changing social and economic conditions and the approach of the government in dealing with these conditions.