Kolkata, Jul 29 (IANS): With an aim to ensure the social and financial welfare of the delivery persons in the state, the West Bengal government has decided to form a separate welfare board.

Source from the state labour department said that the process has already been approved by the state labour minister Malay Ghatak and in due course the proposal will be forwarded for the approval of the state cabinet.

A senior officer from the state labour department said that the decision on this count has been taken in the backdrop of the fact that these delivery persons are not on the regular payroll of the companies and hence are not entitled for retirement and other related benefits.

It has also been decided to form a separate fund for that purpose so that these delivery persons can be brought under the retirement benefits including provident fund.

“The problem is that these delivery persons do not have any specific appointing authority in most cases. They are also highly unorganised and do not have any specific forum to raise their issues relating to their social and financial securities. So once this forum is constituted, they will have a specific forum where they will be able to get their issues addressed,” a senior official from the state labour department said.

He explained that once the proposed welfare board is formed, there will be a separate portal for that and the delivery boys concerned will be able to get names enrolled through that portal only. “The state labour department will study their cases and accordingly roll out different social and financial welfare schemes for them, as the state government had been doing for others belonging to different unorganised sectors,” the state labour department official said.