The State government will provide buses for women working in garment factories. The bus service, aimed at ensuring their safety, will be launched by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during the first week of January, P.T. Parameshwar Naik, Minister of State for Labour, has said.
Mr. Naik, who is the district in-charge Minister, told pressperson here on Thursday that following the Chief Minister’s instructions to provide safety to women workers, the Labour Department, the Road Transport Department and the management of garment factories had worked out a detailed plan. The bus service would be available in Bengaluru first and then extended to other areas.
“There are around 3 lakh women working in shifts in garment factories in Bengaluru alone. They will be given a monthly bus pass and they can board the buses from some of the points at the scheduled time. The managements have been asked to bear the bus pass charge, which will come to around Rs. 1,050 a month, while Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy has been requested to consider bringing down the bus pass charge,” he said.
Many of them anaemicThe Labour Department had conducted a survey and found that around 1.5 lakh women garment workers were anaemic, following which they were being provided medicines, he said.
Mr. Naik said the State Cabinet had decided to extend retirement benefits to the teaching and non-teaching staff of 196 aided industrial training institutes. “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was keen on extending the benefits to those who had been training students from poor economic background and from rural areas. Now the staff members, who retire between 2014 and 2042, will get gratuity, pension and other retirement benefits,” he said.
The Minister said a Cabinet sub-committee, headed by R.V. Deshpande, Minister for Higher Education, had been set up to look into providing grant-in-aid to all eligible private educational institutions.
