Government working on creating new avenues for jobs: Santosh Gangwar

Labour minister Santosh Gangwar today said the government is "sincerely" working towards creating new avenues for jobs and self-employment in the country.

Speaking about the government's focus on generating jobs, the minister mentioned the Mudra Yojana and highways construction and said such programmes have created a lot of employment opportunities.

"The central government is sincerely working to create new avenues of employment and self-employment...," Gangwar said at the 65th Foundation Day celebration of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) here.

He said that the Centre has recently "decided to construct 83,000 Kms of highways which will create 32 crore man-days in a span of 5 years".

He further said that Mudra Yojana has created a lot of self-employment opportunities as 9.5 crore people have been given loans amounting to Rs 4 lakh crore.

On the EPFO's long journey, Gangwar said the retirement fund body has taken a long jump since its inception in 1952.

The EPFO has achieved various milestones in last 65 years and its journey began with 5.5 lakh beneficiaries and now it covers 4.5 crore employees, Gangwar said, adding that EFPO now covers more than 10 lakh establishments which initially was 1,267.

The labour minister said the EPFO has started various new initiatives to accelerate the process of online registration of employers.

The EPFO is spreading the coverage area of its schemes for workers from unorganised sector, he added.

On this occasion, EPFO's Central Provident Fund Commissioner V P Joy said the retirement fund body is committed to 'Digital India' initiative and expressed hope that it will become a totally digitalised and paperless office by August 15, 2018.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan presided over the function and lauded the EPFO's efforts to digitalise the services to accelerate the claims of its beneficiaries in Provident Fund, Pension and Insurance.

She also inaugurated 1 MW solar power plant at various regional offices of the EPFO on this occasion.