12 months' pension to coir workers

Thiruvananthapuram, June 15 (UNI) Kerala Cooperation Minister G Sudhakaran today said the government would distribute 12 months' pension to coir workers registered with the Coir Welfare Board.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said the pension would be distributed from June 22 and 38,179 workers aged over 60 years would get the benefit.

A sum of Rs 4.86 crore had been released for the purpose. Besides this, 17,060 workers would also get Member Pension, he added.

Mr Sudhakaran said nearly 3.75 lakh workers, 80 per cent of them women, were engaged in the coir industry and majority of them had lost their jobs because of the crisis in the industry.

As promised in the LDF manifesto, the government would take all possible steps to provide them jobs at the earliest. It would start ''distress purchase'' of coir from the coir societies and private coir companies from next month, he said.

UNI CGV VV ADB2014