Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Decision to fix minimum wages for gram panchayat workers hailed

GULBARGA: Maruti Manpade, member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretariat and president of the Karnataka State Gram Panchayat Noukarara Sangha and sangha vice-president Mansur Patel have thanked Governor Rameshwar Thakur for ensuring justice to gram panchayat workers.

More than 40,000 workers employed in gram panchayats scored a major victory when the State Government finally conceded their demand to fix minimum wages and include them under the Employees Provident Fund Act.

Speaking to presspersons here on Saturday, Mr. Manpade and Mr. Patel said that the decision to introduce minimum wages would take effect from April 2007.

The minimum wage for sweepers and pourakarmikas is Rs. 2,030, for jawans Rs. 2,130, for watermen Rs. 2,130, for pump operators and balawadi workers Rs. 2,180 and for clerks and bill collectors Rs. 2,380. The Government also announced minimum wages for bill collectors, clerks, watermen, pump operators, jawans and sweepers working in town panchayats, ranging from Rs. 2,080 to Rs. 2,430 a month.

Mr. Manpade said that the Government had decided to earmark 40 per cent of the funds allocated to gram panchayats for the payment of salaries.

The Government had decided to consider the taluk as a unit while introducing EPF in gram panchayats and town panchayats, since the EPF Commissionerate had insisted that at least 25 people should be employed in each gram panchayat in order to introduce the scheme.

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