Govt prepares cabinet memo for workers’ welfare
SHILLONG: Labour Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said on Friday Meghalaya is not the only state that has under-utilised the cess amount collected from construction agencies in bettering the living conditions of workers.
Lyngdoh, who was referring to the remark of Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya earlier this month that Meghalaya had used only Rs 93 lakh of the Rs 80.42-crore cess, said there are bigger states whose unutilised cess amount is more than Meghalaya.
Addressing the gathering at an IT awards function, the Minister said the Government has started enrolling labourers for implementing various schemes. An enrolment camp was organised in Malki on Friday.
“It is not simple to roll out the scheme and we are ensuring that enrolment procedures are properly conducted,” she told media persons on the sidelines of the IT awards for meritorious students.
According to Lyngdoh, any construction worker is eligible for the scheme but the catch was how to verify the eligible labourers, to which the government had come up with an idea.
Stressing on the need to identify correct beneficiaries of the scheme, Lyngdoh said there were so many procedures for enrolling a labourer initially.
When asked why only Rs 93 lakh was utilised out of the Rs 80 crore cess fund, the Minister said there were only 4,000 beneficiaries and workers had to be linked through contractors, who were not willing to declare their labourers.
“The government has prepared a cabinet memo to ensure that workers have more favourable procedure and now even labour inspectors are permitted to verify the eligible workers,” she added.
Earlier, the labourers had to pay Rs 30 as registration amount to be registered and Rs 15 every month but the department recently had a discussion and now the Government charges Rs 15 for registration and Rs 5 monthly.
When asked if labourers from outside will be enrolled under the Government schemes, she said as per the act, everybody falls under the ambit of the scheme but the Government wants to ensure that local people would get adequate coverage, adding that inter-state migrant workers are highly skilled and their remuneration is Rs 500 per day.
She further added that the department will seek the support of the MLAs and the MDCs to create more awareness about Government schemes so that more beneficiaries register themselves.
