Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday showered `boons’ on the working classes with a slew of announcements that included free accident insurance of Rs.5 lakh covering a range of workers. Very soon, the government intends to set up Skill Building Centres (SBC) under the National Academy of Construction (NAC).
To thunderous applause, he told an impressive gathering at the Ravindra Bharathi on the occasion of the official May Day celebrations that every driver in the private sector - be it those driving auto rickshaws, cars, lorries, buses and more would be covered under the accident insurance scheme. Also included in this scheme were about 16,000 Home Guards, approximately 12,000 journalists and construction workers.
Mr. Rao recalled how the Telangana Government had rolled out a scheme under which Rs.1,000 a month is paid to 3.70 lakh woman beedi workers, as a kind of pension, despite the fact that it would mean an expenditure of Rs.450 crore annually. Also, maternity benefit for construction workers was increased from Rs.10,000 to Rs.20,000, he said.
As for the SBCs, the Chief Minister said that under the aegis of the NAC, he would have at least one centre each in all the districts. He drew the attention of Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya and said once that was done, the Centre could chip in with more assistance. Considering that the Union Minister was focussed on the training component, he said that he could help in arranging for on-the-job training of ITI students with a stipend and likewise for engineering graduates.
Mr. Rao made a specific request, asking Mr. Dattatreya to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, together with the Industries Minister and work out how the new State of Telangana could benefit from Central schemes. He referred to his own tenure as Labour Minister at the Centre and how he had introduced a scheme under which a form of unemployment allowance was sanctioned to people for a total of four months a year, between jobs. This he said, was out of the Employees Provident Fund, which at that point of time was a whopping Rs.14,000 crore.
Earlier, Mr. Dattatreya said that every effort was being made by the Centre under the leadership of Mr. Modi to see that labour laws were being adhered to and that Government would not tolerate those who rob workers of their rights. He explained Modi’s ‘mantra’ of Make in India, Digital India and Skill India and said that the endeavour was to create atleast a crore jobs. He underscored the need for a conducive atmosphere between trade unions and managements and how the former needed to be united.
Telangana Minister for Labour and Home, Naini Narsimha Reddy said that Government would usher in a healthy tradition wherein managements would share their profits with the workforce. He regretted that there were some industries that were obstructing trade unions and termed that workers had a right to demand their rights. He reminded the workers though, that there was no substitute for hard work and asked them to put in their best.
Also present were MLC Ramulu Naik, Secretary to Government Harpreet Singh and Labour Commissioner Ahmed Nadeem.
