The Hindu : Karnataka News : Rehabilitate textile mill workers: AITUC

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Karnataka

Karnataka

Rehabilitate textile mill workers: AITUC

Staff Correspondent

‘Hundreds of workers lost jobs because of lockout'

Huge funds are said to be lying unused
under RGSKY
‘Scheme should be made applicable to those who lost jobs in 1990s'

DAVANGERE: The All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has said that funds released under the Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana (RGSKY) introduced in 2004 was lying unused as most industries, particularly textile manufacturing units, were closed in the mid-nineties. These funds could now be used to rehabilitate the workers who were rendered jobless then. Hence, the Government should modify the scheme to benefit such workers.

Stating this at a press conference here, H.K. Ramachandrappa, secretary of the AITUC, said that over 1,000 textile mills had been closed in the country. In Davangere district alone, six of the eight textile mills were closed before 1995. The workers were not given any benefits because the scheme had not been introduced then, he said and added that the scheme should be made applicable to those units that were closed during the 1990s, keeping in mind the best interests of a large number of workers.

Demand

Mr. Ramachandrappa said that as per the scheme, workers losing jobs on account of lockout would get six months' salary so that they could search for another job. He urged the Union Government to modify the scheme suitably.

The AITUC has decided to submit a memorandum to Union Minister for Labour and Employment M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who is scheduled to visit Davangere on Monday, and urge him to make the scheme applicable to workers who had lost their jobs after textile mills closed.

Mr. Ramachandrappa thanked Mr. Kharge for extending the Employees State Insurance facility to construction workers and urged him to further extend it to anganwadi workers also.

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