Maha for inclusion of forest labourers as construction workers

The Maharashtra government will request the Centre to include forest labourers as construction workers so as to enable them to avail various welfare schemes, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar today said.

Speaking at a meeting here, Mungantiwar said the government would write to the Union Labour ministry in this regard.

The minister said labourers engaged in a string of activities ranging from constructing buildings and roads to those engaged in construction of tunnels and transmission towers and allies fields fall under the definition of construction workers.

"If forest labourers are also included, they too can get the benefit of welfare schemes implemented by the labour board from time to time," Mungantiwar said.

The Maharashtra building and other construction workers Welfare board implements 28 different schemes in areas like education, helath, social security etc. for registered workers.

The board ran 'Atal Vishwakarma sanman Yojana' campaign from February 23 to April 10 this year in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nasik, Amravati and Nagpur.

Over 2 lakh construction workers had registered their names at 96 centres under this campaign.

The number of registered active construction workers at the end of March 2018 in Mumbai (Konkan), Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad was 5,46, 026.