By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Additional Secretary cum Director General of the Union General Labour Welfare, Anil Swarup, on Wednesday informed that the Central Government will ask the Meghalaya Government to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for providing social security to migrant labourers including coal mine workers who come to work in Meghalaya from different states of the country.
Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Swarup said that the Central Government is trying to get various states to sign this MoU so that respective states can jointly take care of the migrant labourers.
The MoU has already been signed in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, and these states are jointly tracking the migrant labourers and providing them with social security, Swarup informed.
“We will take up this matter with the Meghalaya Government to see if they are ready to sign the MoU with other states from where labourers come here,” he said.
Pointing out that migrant workers cannot be prevented from going to any other state to work, Swarup said, “It is the fundamental right of any individual to go to any state and no one should prevent labourers from going anywhere.”
According to Swarup, the migration of labourers from one state to another has reduced after the launch of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as the scheme aim to provide to employment to workers in their respective local areas.
He also informed that the Central government has come up with three types of health insurances for un-organised workers under the Un-organised Workers Social Security Act, 2008.
“The first scheme is health insurance which is being implemented through the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the second scheme is the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana, a life insurance to cover the un-organized sector and the third scheme is the Old Age Pension.”
“The Centre has taken the decision that all RSBY beneficiaries should be provided with life insurance cover,” he said, while hoping that the Meghalaya Government should take benefit of the schemes.
Reacting to a query about the large number of deaths that have occurred in different coal mines of the State in the past few years, Swarup said that the Centre has written to the Meghalaya Chief Secretary impressing upon him that life insurance cover should be given to mine workers.”
He informed that the Central Government would be paying a premium of Rs 100 for the insurance and the State Government should also pay a premium of Rs 100 for the insurance cover to the workers who often lose their lives in such incidents.
“Mining Policy cannot rule out accidents. So we need to have a policy where we can take care of the workers’ families in case of such accidents,” he said.
He also said that the Central Government is taking account of all the fatal accidents that have occurred in the Meghalaya.