The State Government on Friday decided to register families of construction workers working outside the State through the Odisha Construction Workers’ Welfare Board in coming days.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the Secretariat here. It was revealed that as many as 20.69 lakh construction workers have already been registered through the board. labour and ESI Principal Secretary Anu Garg presented updates for discussion.
Padhi advised to adopt ‘camp mode’ for easy registration and hold special camps for workers changing places. He also directed to prepare a GIS-based database for preparation for smooth registration and distribution of various facilities.
Padhi directed the officials to ensure that workers are not exploited by middlemen and wanted decentralisation of sanctioning power among district Collectors, Assistant labour Officers and BDOs.
It was decided to hold help desks in other States where a remarkable number of Odia labourers are working to identify them and get their families registered with the Odisha Construction Workers’ Welfare Board.
Padhi also directed to expedite construct works of seasonal students’ hostels for children of construction workers and rented housing complexes for workers working in urban areas.
labour Commissioner Sachhin Yadav said a total of Rs 440.25 crore has been given to registered workers under different schemes. The Government has targeted to provide various facilities worth Rs 500 crore during the current year.
It was decided to include 10,000 construction workers in the pucca ghar yojana. Among others, Development Commissioner R Balkrishnan was present.