ITANAGAR, 18 Sep: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Saturday informed that a state board for the welfare of the unorganised working class is already in place but could not be activated due to the Covid pandemic.
Speaking at a National Labour Day function organised here by the Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), Khandu was responding to a 15-point memorandum submitted by the organisers on behalf of the state’s working class. The memorandum included the demand for constituting a state unorganised workers’ welfare board.
Khandu informed that approval for constituting the board was granted in August 2022. “However, the board could not be activated due to the Covid pandemic,” he said.
“I have directed the chief secretary to activate the board at the earliest, so that workers under the unorganised sector get all benefits of government schemes and programmes,” he said.
To a request for creation of a motor transport workers’ welfare board, the chief minister informed that “the state transport department is already working on it.”
Regularisation of jobs being one of the major demands of the state’s working class, Khandu assured that his government is “alive to it and has been earnestly working on it.”
Informing that there are about 41,408 casual, contingency and ALCs working in the state, he said, “Add to it about 20,000 WC workers and the total goes up to about 60,000 (in the organised sector). The exercise of job regularisation at hand is not an easy game.”
The CM, however, said that “the state government is committed to regularise the jobs of those who have been serving for 15 years or more.
He informed that 15 percent vacant posts of LDCs will be reserved for contingency staffers, while 25 percent of regular driver posts will be reserved for contingency/casual drivers who are in service for at least 15 years.
“When it comes to our MTS casual workers, we have kept 50 percent reservation for them,” he said.
Urging the working class to avail the insurance benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Beema Yojana (PMJJBY) and the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Beema Yojana (PMSBY), Khandu informed that “the state government has decided to pay the requisite premium of both the schemes on behalf of all registered workers of the state.”
It may be noted that, while one insured under the PMJJBY has to pay a premium of Rs 330 per annum, those under the PMSBY have to pay Rs 12.
Khandu urged the BMS to “spread the information and facilitate all workers to avail benefits of at least one of the schemes.”
The chief minister later distributed tiffin carriers and labour kit bags to local women vegetable vendors.
The function was attended also by, among others, Labour Board Chairman Nyato Dukam, MLA Techi Kaso, and BMS national general secretary Ravindra Dinkarlal. (CM’s PR Cell)
