Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (RD/CN)

Mangalore, Aug 31: “Fifty villages in Bantwal and Mangalore taluks will be covered under the special benefit schemes of all government departments shortly,” said assistant labour commissioner Venkatesh A Shindihatti.

Dakshina Kannada district is one of the five districts where workers’ facilitation centres will be set up on a pilot basis under an agreement signed by the state government with GTZ, a German enterprise, in 2008.  The other districts are Bangalore, Bellary, Mysore, and Gulbarga.

Under the scheme, labourers engaged in the ‘bidi’ industry, construction, ‘agarbatti’, home industry, garment, agriculture, and domestic workers will be able to enrol for special benefits of all government departments under one roof.  These include the new pension scheme, widow pension, old age pension, disability pension, Sandhya Suraksha, Stree Shakti self-help-groups, and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.

Venkatesh A Shindihatti further said that 25 villages each in Bantwal and Mangalore taluks have been selected by the department of labour.  These centres will function in gram panchayat offices and have one community facilitation each.  The appointments to half of these posts are likely to be completed by the first week of September, after which around 10 centres will open in each taluk. The community facilitator will be tasked to carry out a survey of unorganized workers in the local area and register eligible workers with the labour department.  The facilitator will be responsible for ensuring that they get all the benefits due from various government departments.  They will collect and forward applications to the department concerned after reviewing them.

The facilitator will have knowledge of all government social schemes spread across departments such as labour, education, social welfare, backward classes and minorities, tribal welfare, disability, etc.