As part of its special enrolment drive, the Congress has initiated efforts to enrol unorganised workers for the State government pension scheme across the State.
Addressing a press conference at the party office here on Saturday, S.S. Prakasham, secretary of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and president of its Labour Cell, said that the party had set a target of enrolling minimum 5,000 workers in every district.
“The pension scheme meant for those employed in unorganised sector is a good one. The workers have to enrol themselves to get entitled to the benefits of the scheme. The enrolled workers have to pay ₹100 every month and State government would add ₹200 to create pension fund. Once a worker reaches the age of 60, he or she will get a monthly pension,” Mr. Prakasham said clarifying that the State government pension scheme was different from and unrelated to one recently announced in the Union budget.
He expressed discontentment over the poor use of funds collected by Karnataka Building & Other Construction Workers Welfare Board for the welfare of the workers.
“A sum of around ₹7,000 crore is lying with the government. It is the money collected as cess. It generates around ₹400 crore interest annually. However, the government is spending only ₹300 crore for the welfare of the workers. I urge the government to make a proper plan for better spending the money for the welfare of the workers,” he said.