Plans to educate construction workers' kids in elite schools

Labour Minister T Parameshwar Naik has said government is thinking of providing education to children of building construction workers at prestigious institutions.

Briefing repoters, after chairing a review meeting of development works of his department in the district, at DC’s office in Mangaluru, on Monday, he said the issue was discussed at preparatory meeting with the chief minister. The plan is directed to bring construction workers’ children to mainstream.

However, choice of medium of instruction will be left to student. The government is thinking of entering into MoU with residential schools in this regard. The government has been providing financial assistance to support education of children of construction workers. Also, medical assistance is being provided to building labourers.

Government will identify 43 lakh building construction labourers in the State towards Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in the first stage. In the district, 1,38,000 persons against target of 1,50,000, have been identified. Building construction workers including those BPL families may avail 12 kind of benefits under the scheme.

Construction academy

Meanwhile, he said, Cabinet has given approval for Construction Academy near Doddaballapur at a cost of Rs 250 crore. It will be second of its kind in the country. A 20 acre land has also been identified and blue print being prepared.

Naik said for the first time in Karnataka, multi-trading system will be introduced in the State, under which a student will be allowed to take up two related subjects at a time, — electrician and plumbing, cooking and hospitality etc. This is to improve skills and create more business opportunities to ITI students. He said he has placed a request before chief minister to reserve Rs 1,001 crore for his department towards new programmes for unemployed youth.
The four new ITIs at Ullal, Kavalkatte, Kinnigoli and Puttur, have recorded low admission rate and steps will be taken to improve admission from the coming academic year. NCVT upgradation will be done in coming days.

ESI woes

Naik said though five doctors were posted to ESI hospital in Mangaluru, three of them used political influence to get themselves transferred to other places.

Steps will be taken to appoint doctors. Department of Labour and Department of Health is thinking of hiring doctors for ESI hospitals, on contract basis.

Naik said he will meet Union Minister for Labour on March 10 requesting him to take measures to hand over ESI hospitals to ESI Corporation. A proposal will be placed before KPSC to recruit 150 doctors, he added. The Labour Department has collected Rs 451 crore cess in a year. He expressed happiness over Dakshina Kannada district being child labour free district and added Karmika Kalyana Bhavans will be built in all district centres.

Earlier, during his meeting with department officials, Naik directed them to consider sand extracting labourers at river banks, as building construction workers and all benefits provided by the government to the construction labourers should be provided to sand extracting labourers as well.

CET fees of children who take up professional courses through CET would be borne by the government. Besides Rs 2,000 scholarship would be offered to students who take up MPhil of PhD courses. He said three ITI centres are set up in Udupi District in Yellur in Kaup, Kokkarne in Udupi and Byndoor.