The Chief Minister will soon take steps to increase the pension for the aged members of TN Construction Workers Welfare Board from Rs 1000 to Rs 3000, the Board Chairman Pon Kumar said.
He distributed Rs 41.50 lakh worth various aid and safety kits to the board members at the Erode District Collector's office. Then, he said that the board has a corpus fund of Rs 5000 crore. So, it has passed a resolution to hike the pension and sent it to the government. A recommendation to give rainy season allowance of Rs 3000 per month to the workers was also recommended. The then Chief Minister Karunanidhi inaugurated Skill Development Training Institute for Construction Workers and allotted 25 acres for it at Chengalpattu.
The then Labor Minister Anbarasanam and I launched the first class in the institution. But, was defunct during AIADMK rule. It would be revived. The board was in coma condition for the last ten years without hiking and benefits to members. During, the past one year, the CM distributed Rs 420 cr aid to 5 lakh members of the board and hiked the benefits 2 to 3 fold. All 17 welfare boards for unorganized labour were created by Karunanidhi only and members of the boards would soon get enhanced pension.
Similarly, the Chief Minister announced that a grant of Rs 4 lakh will be given for construction workers to build houses if they have land or houses under the urban development scheme. The norms to register in the board and houses through online would soon be simplified.
In Erode district only 500 applications were pending to be registered in the board but in Salem it was over 5000 applications. The collectors were told to direct the VAOs to process the applications within a month.
The Centre has imposed 28% GST on the construction industry, which hit the workers, builders and people much. It should be reduced to 2 to 3 percent. In fact, it earns huge amount as GST in TN and spends much in UP, Bihar etc. We have to struggle much to get our genuine fund.
In the best CM study in the nation, our CM got 57 percent mark and was in the top among CMs in the nation. So, the Centre should cooperate to the CM to help people more. Now, many construction workers came from north India. It would hit our culture and job opportunity and create social problems.
Steps will be taken to hike the education aid for the children of workers, he added. Collector Krishnan Unni, MLA Venkatajalam, Mayor Nagarathnam Subramaniam, Labour Department officials participated in the event.