The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Social security for 1 lakh construction workers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Social security for 1 lakh construction workers

Special Correspondent

Welfare board sets itself a stiff target for next year

A slew of benefits offered for registered workers
1 per cent cess collected from building owners

BANGALORE: Karnataka has set an aggressive target of registering more than one lakh construction workers in the State with the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board by March 2009 for providing various social security benefits, including medical and educational aid to these unorganised workers.

Principal Secretary to the Labour Department, B.L. Sridhar told The Hindu at the sidelines of a workshop organised by the board in Bangalore on Tuesday for senior officers of various departments, including labour and factories and boilers, that more than 20,000 construction workers had so far registered themselves with the board.

Labour Commissioner K.S. Manjunath explained that the registered construction workers were eligible to get benefits such as a medical aid of Rs. 10,000 for treatment of major ailments, a relief of Rs. 1 lakh in case of accident leading to death or physical disability, Rs. 2,000 for funeral expenses of registered members, Rs. 5,000 for the marriage of members and their two children.

In addition to this, the members would get a loan assistance of Rs. 5,000 for purchase of tools and women members were eligible for a medical assistance of Rs. 4,000 towards delivery.

He said owners of buildings under construction had to pay a cess of 1 per cent of their building cost to the board for providing benefits to construction workers. A total cess of Rs. 33 crore had been collected from building owners ever since the implementation of the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Act that was enacted in April 2007.

Deputy Labour Commissioner Vasanthkumar N. Hittanagi said the cess would apply to all the commercial buildings while only those residential buildings whose construction cost was estimated to be over Rs. 10 lakh would have to pay the cess.

Sources in the Labour Department said the progress of implementation of the above Act to provide social security benefits to construction workers was better in Karnataka when compared with other States.

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