Centre to increase subsidy to build houses for beedi workers

The Union Government will soon increase the subsidy given to construct houses for beedi workers from Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 75,000, Union Minister for Labour and Employment M. Mallikarjun Kharge has said.

Mr. Kharge was speaking after launching work on building 200 houses for beedi workers at Bidnal village near Hubli. The houses are being built by the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation with subsidies given by the State and Union governments.

Considering the demand for more houses to be built at Bidnal, steps would be taken to sanction an additional 200 houses under the project, he said.

Mr. Kharge said that there were around 50 lakh beedi workers in the country, of whom 32 lakh were women.

Special law

“In 1976, the Union Government enacted a special law for the welfare of beedi workers, education for their children and providing other facilities to them. In Karnataka, there are 2.45 lakh beedi workers and of them, 2.31 lakh people have been given identity cards. The remaining workers should be extended the facility at the earliest,” he said.

Mr. Kharge lauded the initiative taken by the district administration in clubbing the subsidies given by the State and Union governments to build houses for beedi workers at a cost of Rs. 1.6 lakh each.

Elaborating on the need to give impetus to vocational centres to generate employment opportunities , Mr. Kharge said that the Centre had chalked out plans to give skill development training to 50 crore people in a span of twelve years.

“Under the next Five-Year Plan, it has been planned to open 500 industrial training institutes (ITIs) and set up 5,000 skill development centres,” he said.

Funds sanctioned

The Union Minister said that in the last two years, the Union Labour and Employment Department had released Rs. 3,700 crore to the State and sanctioned a regional provident fund office for Belgaum. In addition, provident fund sub-offices had been sanctioned for Karwar, Tumkur and Yelahanka in Bangalore, he said.

‘Increase unit cost'

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister and District-in-charge Jagadish Shettar said there was a need for increasing the unit cost of the houses from Rs. 1.6 lakh to Rs. 2.5 lakh. He said that in order to sort out legal problems pertaining to construction of such houses for beedi workers and others, the issue would be discussed in the Cabinet meeting.

He appealed to the Union Minister to sanction a skill development centre for Hubli.

‘Convert ESI hospital'

Member of Parliament Pralhad Joshi urged the Union Minister to take steps to convert the ESI hospital in Hubli into a sophisticated hospital with advanced medical facilities. He also submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister to take up the issue of providing a direct railway link between Hubli and Gulbarga.

Deputy Commissioner Darpan Jain said that the administration planned to provide houses to another 400 beedi workers. He appealed to the beneficiaries to move into the houses after it was completed and assured them that basic amenities would be provided immediately.

Demand

Meanwhile, the Dharwad Zilla Beedi Karmikara Kshemabhivruddhi Sangha urged Mr. Kharge to take steps to construct another 500 houses for beedi workers at Bidnal. President of the sangha B.A. Mudhol and other office-bearers submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Minister. Mr. Kharge assured the members that he would look into their demands.