The Hindu : Rs. 40 cr. for rehabilitating VRS-opted staff

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Rs. 40 cr. for rehabilitating VRS-opted staff

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 29. The Labour Minister, Babu Divakaran, said here today that the State Government had allocated Rs. 40 crores towards retraining and rehabilitating employees in public sector undertakings who opted for the voluntary retirement scheme under the Modernisation of Government Programme (MGP).

Addressing a `Meet the Minister' programme, organised jointly by the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club and the State Public Relations Department, Mr. Divakaran said the State would be declared free of child labour in the next six months. The Government proposed to bring in the Kerala Child Labour Bill to achieve this objective. The Government would also launch a survey on child labour.

Replying to a question on what the Government proposed to do for the mass of employees who would be forced to take VRS and join the forces of unproductive labour, the Minister said the retraining and rehabilitation scheme was intended to equip this segment to take up re-employment elsewhere or within the public sector.

With regard to the various labour welfare funds, the Government was examining the possibilities of merging some of the minor labour welfare funds in order to provide better services to the targeted groups. He said 45 lakh workers or one third of the State's population were covered by labour welfare schemes. It was not practical to bring all the labour welfare schemes under one umbrella because some of them, like the Headload Workers Welfare Fund and the Construction Workers Welfare Fund addressed divergent issues, not to mention the fact that they were doing well in their current structure.

In order to facilitate smoother transfer of benefits to the labourers registered with the welfare funds, it had been decided to bring in major amendments to five welfare fund Bills.

Mr. Divakaran said the Labour Department had given shape to a draft bill to simplify the procedures relating to maintenance of records and registers by employers as per the current labour laws. With the advent of Information Technology, the Government had introduced the `Self-certification system'. This would avoid frequent inspections by labour officials.

The Minister said problems in the plantation sector continued to be a major challenge. The standing committee on plantations had been set up and some of its suggestions were under the Government's consideration. He admitted that there was a flight of promoters from plantation sector, particularly tea plantations which were in the grip of a major crisis.

IT courses

In reply to a question, Mr. Divakaran said the Government was considering revamping the ITI courses and introducing campus recruitment in these institutions. It had been decided to discontinue 15 ITI courses which did not provide employment opportunities and introduce modern courses. Thanks to the State Government's efforts, 52 ITI and ITC courses had received national recognition. He said there were several limitations for the Labour Department while intervening in labour issues.

``The fact that the younger trade union leaders were receptive to new waves sweeping in the labour sector is some consolation. But efforts should be made to prepare the sector meet the challenges thrown up by economic reforms and globalisation,'' he said and added that workers across various sectors had to realise that the world was changing and the labour sector could not remain immune to this.

In reply to a question, Mr. Divakaran said his party was of the view that the functioning of the UDF Government was far from satisfactory. However, there was no differences in the party as reported by the media.

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