NSSN card for construcution workers

Hyderabad, Mar 28 (UNI) The meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) chaired by Union Labour Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao here today decided to provide National Social Security Number (NSSN) card, on the lines of the PAN card, to two to three crore building and construction workers across the country soon.

The review meeting held for the first time outside Delhi in 30 years, discussed the report of the three-member committee on the problems of the building and construction industry workers, many of whom also were peripatetic. It was also decided to appoint a monitoring committee to watch over the performance, an official release said.

With the NSSN, a construction worker would be able to get social security benefit, irrespective with whom he had been employed from time to time, Mr Rao said.

The board decided to have more fund managers apart from the SBI, which was investing on behalf of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

In an effort to remove public perception that unclaimed deposit was a free asset available with EPFO, the Board decided to rename it as ''inoperative account'' as the present name was misleading.

Under the pilot 'reinventing EPF India Project' to be launched in Hyderabad in coming June, claims would be settled within three days by simplication of the exhaustive 49 steps involved in clearing of claims to just nine steps. Each member would be able to know the balance in his EPF account by browsing the net, the minister added.

The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Labour Chandrasekhar Sahu, Central Provident Fund Commissioner A Viswanathan and Union Joint Additional Labour Secretary J P Singh.

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