Ranchi, Dec. 24: Wishing a happy Christmas, and praying to Lord Baidyanath, Labour Minister Raj Paliwal reckoned the achievements of his 10-month-old tenure as the minister of the state.
Repeating the commitment of Ragbubar Das led government, the minister said that the government is all set to work in favor of the work force of the state and now, the salary of factory workers and laborers in unorganized sectors will be transferred online into their bank account.
He said that the government believes that sweat of the workers should be rewarded with proper amount of wages and to obtain this, the government has raised the wages of the laborers to Rs. 210, the highest in the nation. He said that the Union Labor Minister Bandaru Dattatraya appreciated this move of the state government regarding Paliwar.
Paliwal said this while addressing a press conference at Soochana Bhawan, said that due to the labor reforms carried out by the department, the World Bank has ranked it No. 1 department.
He said that the laborers will be paid the wages online now. Previously, the laborers who migrated abroad were no given any compensation in case they lose their limbs/ body parts while working.
Now the government has provisioned to give Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs. 25,000 to such laborers as per the degree of their loss, so that they can restart their life. Labor Advisory Committee has been formed in the state.
Informing the press about the novel Shram Shakti Pehchan Abhiyan, Paliwar said that identity cards have been given to such workers in unorganized areas. For the bidi workers, the government is serious and the honorable Prime Minister of India has raised the fund given for housing to the bidi workers from Rs.40,000 to 1,00,000. Moreover, the government has planned to give scholarship from Rs. 750 to Rs. 5,000 to the children of workers.
Workers of organized sectors will be given a sewing machine and a bicycle each through conducting a campaign. He said that the government has classified workers into unskilled, skilled, para-skilled and highly skilled categories. 67,124 laborers have been given the benefit of Aam Aadami Beema Yojana and 4177 workers are having been trained under different schemes.
While saying about the contract laborers, the minister said that the government is working for their benefit and endeavoring to arrange work for them so that they don�t have to go abroad. He said that the government has brought a bill in this regard and the bill had to face stern opposition in the house. But the government is all set to benefit the workers and people opposing it are in fact, denying opportunity to the laborers. In such distraction, knowingly or unknowingly, they are deviating the unemployed youths from the mainstream.
Regarding skilling the youths, the minister said that the state got 14 ITI institutions from Bihar and the state has added 13 more to this list so far. But the government endeavors to open an ITI in every block in the line of Uttarakhand government The private companies are encouraged to develop skills in the state and in this regard, companies like SAIL, BSL, ACC, JSPL, TATA and Usha Martin have agreed to develop skills and M. o. A�s have been signed between these companies and ITI�s.
Praising the Prime Minister for his foreseeing and charismatic leadership, Paliwar said that like the Union government, skill development is the priority of the state government and the P.M.�s dream will be materialized in the state. He said that 10 left extremism affected areas have been identified and the government plans to open ITI�s in these areas.
Talking about employment, he said that employment exchange will be made active following the dream of Rev. Dattopant Thengri, the founder of BMS and in this line, Health Department has started appointing personnel through district exchanges and other departments will follow it. Job fairs have been conducted in nine districts of the state.
He said that Ranchi has been made national Career Nodal Center and Dhanbad, Dumka, Jamshedpur and Deoghar are in the process of becoming state Career Nodal Centers.
Regarding treatment expenses of the workers, he said that they will now be borne by the state government Namkom and Adityapur hospitals will be upgraded and the 3 dispensaries of Madhupur and Giridih will be upgraded into full fledged 6 bed hospitals. He said that 13 big hospitals of the country will be tied up for the treatment of the labourers.
He said that the government has planned to form Sharmik Mitra at block level which will register the workers and look into their affairs. NULM and NRLM will be strengthened in the state and the government will not tolerate exploitation of the workers.
A helpline will be started for the workers soon and Dhawa Dals will be formed to probe and report whether the workers are given the wages as claimed by the company or not. Operation Insaaf will be run in the state to ensure justice to the workers.