CM announces reconstitution of board for construction workers

Hyderabad, May 1 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today announced reconstitution of the Board for building Construction workers in the state.

Distributing ''Shrama Shakti Awards to 24 workers and Best Management awards to 14 companies as part of the May Day celebrations here, the Chief Minister said one per cent of the state construction industry's turnover of Rs 50,000 crore would be collected for the welfare of the workers.

''The Board has been reconstituted with S Gopal as chairman to effectively implement the law providing for uplift of construction workers,' he said.

Dr Reddy assured the beedi workers that he would ensure that mandatory ''skull and cross bones'' logo on beedi packets was not implemented by the Centre till alternative jobs were provided to them.

He said it was not proper to implement the health logo without providing alternative employment to the workers.

''The state government's efforts to impress upon the Centre to put on hold the health logo will succeed,'' he expressed confidence.

A high-level committee had been constituted to study best of the labour practices in other states and implement them in Andhra Pradesh, he added.

Lamenting that Industrial Training Institutes in the state was only turning out fitters and turners, he said the state government with assistance from the Centre would upgrade the skills of workers for better job opportunities.

Urging the corporates to adopt a humane approach, the Chief Minister said there would be no need for implementation of labour laws if they took care of the workers well.

State Labour Minister G Vinod, speaking on the occasion said his department had chalked out scheme for providing overseas employment to trained workers.

UNI