Union Minister focuses on employment generation, child labour eradication, plantation workers’ pay
SHILLONG: Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said on Friday the northeastern region, with all its natural resources, has the potential to be an industrial hub.
The Union Labour Minister, who was in the city to lay the foundation stone of the Regional Labour Institute, said “The North East region is full of hydro energy, oil and gas, coal, limestone and other natural resources.”
“At present, there are 8,567 registered factories in NER employing more than 3 lakh workers.”
The Minister assured that the Centre is committed to growth and overall development of the region by setting up industries which will boost employment opportunities.
Stressing on the NDA government’s flagship Skill India programme, Dattatreya said the establishment of the labour institute will be a milestone in the North East by creating skilled manpower and enhancing wages.
He said earlier all activities of the Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) were supervised from Kolkata but the Ministry decided to have a regional unit for the North East and Shillong was selected for the same.
Appreciating the State Government for providing 1 acre of land for the institute, set up by DGFASLI under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Minister said, “We are going to spend Rs 13. 40 crore in which a huge complex will be established… There will be training for diploma studies and labour service of the North East Region.”
On employment generation, the Minister said the Centre has come up with the National Career Service Portal that has a platform for employers and employees that will help an interaction between jobseekers and job givers.
According to Dattatreya, with the opening of the portal, unemployed youths from the State can have employment anywhere in the country.
A job seeker can use his mobile phone for information about employers. He requested the State Government that the portal and connectivity issues be developed in Meghalaya.
The Minister maintained that the quality and strength of the State should be explored and added that children below 14 years should not b employed by any establishment, factories or households.
Dattatreya urged the State government to initiate fresh survey on child labour. “All children should be in schools.”
“It is the first time that the government is taking revolutionary steps. I want a fresh survey to be made in Meghalaya and see that in no establishment children are employed,” he said and added, “This should be strictly implemented so that the lives of the children should be joyful. We need cooperation from the state government.”
Informing about a regional conference, he said, “Meghalaya is coming up but we wanted to push and give more incentives to the State.”
Highlighting workers’ social security, Dattatreya said, “There are two organizations — one is the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and the second one is the hospitals and dispensaries i.e. Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). We will see that the dispensary in Shillong is upgraded to a six-bed hospital so that more medical facilities are provided to workers.”
The Union Minister also spoke about the plight of plantation workers, most of whom are women who are poorly paid.
Stating that there will be amendments to the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, the Minister said at present wages include cash and kind but after the amendment, wages will be in cash and there will be other benefits like health, housing, children’s scholarship and ration. “Maximum benefits will be given to women workers,” he added.