Construction workers protest against board

Construction workers from different parts of the district staged a protest against the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board for its lackadaisical attitude in implementing various schemes.

Memorandum

Assembling under the banner of the Karnataka State Construction Workers Union (affiliated to CITU), Belagavi district, the workers took procession and later submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner here on Wednesday.

The union’s district president Nagappa Sangolli, vice-president L.S. Naik, secretary G.M. Jainekhan and honorary president and senior comrade C.A. Kharade led the procession.

Unreasonable delay

The union members said that though the State government constituted the Board under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, to implement the provisions and the schemes laid out in the Act, there was unreasonable delay in taking decisions on a large number of applications submitted to the Board. The delay was in sharp contrast to the repeated assurances of the Board that it would expeditiously consider applications to sanction benefits, they said.

List of demands

The union also submitted a list of demands, including a direction from the government to the Board to expedite clearance of pending applications, a monthly retirement pension of Rs. 3,000, and increasing the limit of health insurance scheme for workers from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1 lakh.