Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said the Union Government will pass the bill pertaining to increasing the payment of gratuity to the private sector employees from the existing ₹ 10 lakh to ₹ 20 lakh in the ensuing parliament session.
The Union Minister, who was here to participate in the Digi Dhan mela organized at Ambedkar Stadium on Wednesday, told newsmen that the Government had also introduced a bill to increase the maternity benefits to women workers from the existing 12 weeks leave to 26 weeks.
He said that the Maternity Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha and hoped that it would be cleared even in the Lok Sabha during this session.
Merger of hsopitals
He also said that the Union Government had increased minimum wages of the unorganised farming sector from ₹ 216 per day to ₹ 300 per day. He also said that they would merge all the beedi workers’ dispensaries and hospitals with the ESI, which was having huge corpus fund of ₹ 42,000 crore and develop new hospitals for the benefit of beedi workers.
Stating that they would construct a 100-bedded ESI hospital in the Ramagundam coal belt region, he assured the workers of constructing ESI hospitals in Karimnagar and Jammikunta towns. He said that they would construct houses for all the beedi workers in Telangana by 2022 provided the State Government allocated land. The Union Government would sanction ₹ 1.5 lakh for the construction of house and another ₹ 1 lakh would be provided as loan from the PF account to the beedi workers.
Asked about the shops, business establishments charging surcharge for using digital financial transactions, he said that the Centre was examining removal of the surcharges very soon. Minister for Finance Etala Rajender, Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar, legislators G. Kamalakar and Rasamayi Balakishan, Z.P. Chairperson Tula Uma, Mayor S. Ravinder Singh, Collector Sarfaraz Ahmed and others were also present.
