Labour Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan has said that the migrant labourers in the State will be provided free health insurance coverage, which will enable their families to get a one-time aid of Rs.2 lakh in case of accidental deaths and a personal treatment aid of up to Rs.15,000 to manage emergency situations.
He was inaugurating a medical camp for the labourers at Feroke on Monday. He said steps would be taken to offer them the benefits of the Welfare Fund Board under the Labour Department.
“In addition to the treatment and other welfare measures, the government is mulling over the scope of constructing special flats to accommodate them. The construction work of one of such projects, which is expected to provide accommodation for around 760 labourers, is in full swing now at Kanjikkode in Palakkad district,” the Minister said. He added that similar flats would come up in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts.
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On the poor accommodation provided by some of the employers to the workers, the Minister said such incidents would be taken very seriously with appropriate penalising measures. “Directions have been issued to the Labour Department officers to carry out surprise checking and monitor the situation on a regular basis,” he said. As part of the medical camp, special leaflets were distributed among the migrant workers projecting the importance of quality healthcare and the measures to be taken to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.
The Minister inaugurated the distribution of the leaflets which were prepared in Hindi, Oriya and Bengali languages. Around 800 migrant labourers attended the medical camp organised with the support of doctors and paramedical staff from various government and private hospitals in the city. District panchayat president Babu Parassery and District Medical Officer R.L. Saritha were present.