REGIONAL LABOUR INSTITUTE FARIDABAD WILL BE DEVELOPED AS A CENTRE
OF EXCELLENCE FOR EDUCATION, TRAINING, RESEARCH, TECHNICAL LITERATURE
AND GUIDELINES IN THE FIELD OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
- DR. SAHIB SINGH
Dr. Sahib Singh, Union
Labour Minister said that Regional Labour Institute (RLI) Faridabad
will be developed as a centre of excellence for education, training,
research, technical literature and guidelines in the field of
occupational safety and health. Dr. Sahib Singh was laying the
foundation stone of the RLI Faridabad today. He said that the
Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes(DGFASLI),
Mumbai is the apex technical organisation. The Central Labour
Institute at Mumbai and three Labour Institutes at Chennai, Kanpur
and Kolkata are functioning under this Directorate General. The
RLI Faridabad will be next in the expansion plan in the chain
of Regional Labour Institutes in the country. These institutes
also cooperate with the State Governments in enhancing the competence
and capabilities of State Factories Inspectorates. He further
said that RLI Faridabad will cater to the needs of the Northern
region in the areas of safety and health. Due to the heavy work
load of RLI, Kanpur, these concerns are not effectively met at
present. This Institute will be established at a total cost of
Rs. 30 (thirty) crores in an area of about five acres and will
be completed within two years. It will serve the States of Punjab,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, Union Territory
of Chandigarh and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The
Labour Minister said that while conceiving this new Institute
it is not only the intention to cater to the needs of the Northern
region but also to function as a National Centre of excellence
extending its services in the specialized areas of emergency preparedness
and risk assessment, etc. throughout the country. Another important
area in which the proposed RLI would function is rendering assistance
to small scale units for improvement of working conditions and
productivity.
The Labour Minister
also emphasized that the interests of unorganized sectors workers
is an area of concern for us. 93% of the total work force consists
of workers in the unorganized sector and they contribute 63% of
the total GDP in India. We are, therefore, committed that social
security to these workers should be provided at the earliest.
We will make every possible effort to bring in the unorganized
Sector’s Bill in the monsoon session of the Parliament or the
provisions of the Bill may be enforced through an ordinance even
before monsoon session of Parliament. Dr. Sahib Singh said we
are simultaneously working on several schemes to give social security
and benefits to the workers in the unorganized sector like social
security number scheme for EPF members, simplification of forms
for withdrawal of PF amount by the workers and recovery of unrealized
workers’ contribution to the tune of Rs. 2200 crores from employers.
He said we are making every possible efforts to invest workers’
provident fund in securities/deposits in such a manner that maximum
returns are available to the workers.
The function
was organized at Faridabad Sector 47 wherein MOS Labour Shri Vijay
Goel, Secretary (Labour), Member of Parliament of the area and
DGFASLI were present.
