Minister for Finance and Labour & Employment Dr Haseeb A Drabu today chaired 15th Board Meeting of Jammu & Kashmir Building & Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (JKBOCWWB).Principal Secretary Finance Navin K Choudhary, Commissioner Secretary Labour & Employment Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, Labour Commissioner Dr Abdul Rashid, CEO/Secretary BOCWWB, Bashir Ahmad, besides other Board members were present in the meeting.Advocating three-dimensional strategy to employ measures for safety, shelter and sanitation at site for the workers, Dr Drabu said that prime objective of this board is to devise and execute labour welfare measures on ground, especially regarding safety.“The success of this board will be measured by the number of successful labour welfare measures executed on ground” he added.The Minister directed the Board to ensure that necessary measures corresponding to this three-dimensional strategy are employed on the ground including availability and use of safety equipment at sites including helmets, gloves, reflective jackets, shoes and making available portable toiletry and hygienic accessories for the females.He also asked for an expansive awareness campaign on ‘Safety and Sanitation at sites’ and asked for employing print and broadcast media in dispersing this message.
Further, the Minister asked the board to create a workable plan to create temporary shelters at work sites for these laborers, besides looking into modalities for creating a permanent shelter to accommodate laborers at locations which have demands for recurring works like industrial estates.He suggested the board to look into use of pre-fabricated huts for providing shelter at temporary work sites.Taking account of various welfare schemes under its ambit, Dr Drabu asked the Board to further streamline and ease the process of applying, reducing redundant, repetitive formalities for various assistance schemes to ensure that the benefits reach the designated beneficiaries.Dr Drabu also directed the Board to create a centralized system for verification of beneficiaries. It was decided that seven centers will be created that will cater to specified zones and qualified staff will be deployed at these centers to speed up disposing of cases besides bringing transparency in the process.Dr Drabu also asked for looking into ways of making labour facilitators available and accessible to workers in unorganized sector. For this he asked for looking into associating with Khidmat Centers, CRCs besides at DC and association offices.The Board was also directed to explore ways and prepare a proposal for creating Pension Scheme for BOC workers on the analogy of other states.