To enable them to avail all benefits
Sambalpur district that lags behind in enrolment of construction workers under the Building and other Construction Workers (RE&CS) Act, 1996 and Rule 2002 is now all set to expedite the work for the greater interest of the working community, particularly in the unorganised sector.
A meeting under the chairmanship of district Collector Balwant Singh held recently and attended by all the BDOs, panchayat executive officers and labour department officials of the district decided to speed up the enrolment work.
It needs to be mentioned here that due to non enrolment of the workers, they are deprived of many benefits including educational assistance for the children, marriage assistance of Rs 20, 000 for two daughters, maternity benefit of Rs 4, 000 for females, complete assistance for medical expenditure for major diseases like cancer, kidney ailment, heart, sickle cell etc in Government or referral hospitals, financial assistance for safety equipment in the work fields, bicycle, personal loan for house building at only two per cent simple interest, and overall death benefit for the next of the kin due to accidental or natural death ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
At the same time, pension benefit to each construction worker after completion of 60 years is also there in the rules and procedures.
“The BDOs and GP executive officers are preparing to at least enrol further 7,000-8,000 construction workers during the current financial year,” informed Collector Singh, adding that “They have been further instructed to submit a list of all eligible construction workers by October 15 of the current year.” Previously, only 11, 000 construction workers were enrolled all over the district.
“Because of lack of awareness, the work had been slow and the real beneficiaries couldn’t avail the benefit. But we are sure to enlist all legible workers by end of March 2015,” informed assistant labour officer (AlO) of Sambalpur KM Biswal who has been entrusted to expedite the work.
Biswal said that there is also a plan to hold camps in all block headquarters for the purpose.