Odisha to raise Rs 1,000 cr fund for construction workers

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The state government has decided to raise a corpus fund of Rs 1,000 crore to assist the workers engaged in building and construction sectors.

The Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board has already raised Rs 750 crore through collection of cess from different government constructions.

"The corpus fund will be utilized in the welfare measures of the labourers, especially the construction workers in the state. The registered workers in the state would also get the benefits, even he/she works out of the state," state's labour and employment minister, Prafulla Mallick said.

Several welfare measures including safety equipment, working tools, bicycle, marriage and education assistance to the children of the labourers, death and funeral benefits to the kith of the deceased are being provided to the registered labourers in the state, said the board's chairman, Subash Singh. He said, the government has already announced to provide pension of Rs 500 per month to the labourers who have crossed 60 years. "The scheme is under the law department for framing the rule. The scheme will be implemented after it is approved," Singh said.

Both the minister and the board's chairman conducted review on the implementation of different welfare measures in Ganjam. The state's higher education minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi, several MLAs and labour officials also attended the review meeting.

In Ganjam district, as many as 61,740 construction workers have been registered with the labour department. In the first three months of the current year, they had received around Rs 12.57 lakh in different welfare schemes. Ganjam stands third in the labour registration list after Khurda and Cuttack, said Mallick. "There is need to create awareness among the workers about the different labour welfare measures of the government. It should be displayed in wall writing at major places, including the panchayat walls," the minister stressed. He said, "The government would maintain constant coordination with other states to check labour exploitation. We have already talked to states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana."