Believe it or not, the Gujarat Government has recently reduced industrial workers' DA by Rs 1.80, while simultaneously increasing it by five per cent for State government employees.

Labour Minister Bhupendra Lakhawala has no explanation for the contradiction. ``There should be no difference in the DA of the two groups'', was all he could tell Express Newsline on Tuesday.

Incidentally, he was not aware if the State government employees' DA had risen though, with a little help from his staff, he recalled that the industrial workers' allowance had gone down.

Angry about the discrepancy, Vadodara Kamdar Union leaders Sudhirbhai Biniwale and Narpatsinh Solanki questioned, ``How can the government apply separate yardsticks for two sections? If the price-rise affects government employees, it should affect workers as well.''

According to Assistant Labour Commissioner R S Leva, ``Industrial workers' DA went up abnormally by Rs 8.20 in April. It has come down now because inflation has fallen. Generally though, it should not go down.''

He added, ``In April, it was the industrialists who were complaining; now it's the workers' turn.''

Though the cutback is nominal, it will affect about 1.5 lakh workers in Vadodara district. Their DA is revised every six months; for State government employees, the revision is tri-monthly.

According to the VKU, even the State Assembly had accepted the fact that more than 93 per cent of the industries do not implement labour laws, including minimum wages. ``The government's anti-labour attitude will cause workers to take law into their own hands'', it warned.