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CHANDIGARH, JULY 21: In a decision of far reaching effects taken by the Advisory Committee of Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board the financial assistance to the construction workers for the treatment of cancer like chronic diseases has been increased from Rs. 1 lac to Rs. 2 lac.
Disclosing this Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu, Labour Minister, said that the motive of the advisory committee was to further increase the financial benefits being delivered to the construction workers besides exploring the ways to increase the cess being collected by the Building and Other Construction Welfare Board.
The Minister said that the prominent decision of the advisory committee was to increase the financial assistance to the construction workers from Rs. 1 lac to Rs. 2 lac for the treatment of serious diseases like cancer and ailments of heart and liver. He said that the labour inspectors have been made accountable for the clearance of the medical claim bills of the construction workers.
He said that the advisory committee in principal has also given go ahead to increased the amount of Shagun being given to the daughters of the construction workers at the time of marriage from Rs. 31,000 to Rs. 51,000. Similarly it was also decided by the committee that the children of the construction workers who would excel in sports arena at district, state, national and inter-national level would get cash financial assistance from the board.
Mr. Sidhu further said that the advisory committee decided to amend the scholarship scheme and now the students who would get 75% marks would be eligible for the scholarship instead of 85% marks. He said that the one time scholarship of Rs. 11,000 would directly be given to the students.
Likewise the advisory committee asked the construction workers’ welfare board to study the fee pattern of Punjabi University, Patiala, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab University, Chandigarh and other institute of higher studies so as to provide the children of construction workers a matching grant to study in these institute of higher studies.
The Labour Minister said that 4 skill development centres are being constructed by the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. He said that the construction work of such centre being built at Mohali is 85% over. He said that the remaining construction work of this centre would be completed with the help of corporate houses under corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund. He said that in these centres training for the trades of electronic, welder, plumber etc would be imparted to the construction workers and their children.
Mr. Sidhu said that the special campaigns are being conducted for the online registration of the construction workers. He said that last year during this campaign 14,000 workers have been registered.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Anil Vij, MLA Pathankot, Mr. Kishor Kumar, nominee of Government of India, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Principal Secretary, Labour Department, Mr. Vimal Kumar Setia , labour commissioner, Punjab, Mr. Harkesh Kumar Sharma, Machhali Kalan, Political Secretary (Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu) and other members of the Advisory Committee.
