Notification for construction workers board on Nov one

Mangalore, Sep 19 (UNI) Karnataka Labour Minister Iqbal Ansari today announced that the long pending demand of construction workers for the setting up of Karnataka Building Construction Workers Welfare Board will be fulfilled with the issuance of notification on November one.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the Board, comprising five members each from the employer and employee's side, would also be represented by the Principal Secretary and Commissioner of the Labour department. The Board with autonomous status would take care of problems of construction labourers such as pensions, delivery assistance to female labourers, Rs 50,000 financial assistance for housing purpose, besides powers like relaxing the norms or imposing more conditions related to the Board.

The two months' time given to receive any objection to the constitution of the Board would lapse on October 31, he added.

Mr Ansari said a Bill for the welfare of workers of the unorganised sector, proposed in 2002, would soon be placed before the Assembly, after holding discussions in Cabinet meetings.

Referring to the demands of beedi workers, he said their main demands were minimum wages, six-day work and housing. Though the Government had fixed Rs 74 as minimum wages, the industry was paying only Rs 55. The Government had constituted a committee to look into their problems, but the workers had gone to court against the Committee, demanding direct action. After the Committee submitted its report, the Ministry would go in for conciliation as agreed by both the employees and employers. If the industry failed to honour the decision taken, the Government would act as per law, he added.

The Minister said his Ministry had appealed to the Government to allot 50,000 houses out of the three lakh proposed, exclusively for beedi workers.

Clarifying that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, during the Chief Minister's meet at Delhi, had only stated that Madrasas in the State could be misused by terrorists infiltrating from other States, Mr Ansari said the Madrasas in the State were functioning well, imparting religious and modern education to make every Muslim youth a more civilised and cultural human being.

To a query on the observation of the Kannada Development Authority that Kannada had not been implemented satisfactorily in the Labour department, the Minister said the department was only acting as a link between the employee and the employer.

Implementation of Kannada in the department was purely with the district administration. However, the Ministry was successful in implementing Kannada to the extent of above 95 per cent, he added.

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