Bhubaneswar, May 1: The Odisha government today announced a 33 per cent hike in minimum wages for unskilled labourers from Rs 150 to Rs 200 per day on the occasion of International Labour Day.
The wages for semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled labourers were also revised correspondingly.
The government also launched free medicine distribution scheme christened as Niramaya today.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik made the announcement at the state-level Labour Day function here. The state government had last revised the minimum wage of the daily labourers on October 6, 2012 ahead of the 2014 general elections.
Coinciding with the occasion, five veteran trade union leaders of Odisha were presented the Biju Shramik Bandhu Samman, which carried a cash award of Rs 50,000 each and citations. The felicitated trade unionists were former CPI MP Duti Krishna Panda of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), former CMP MP Sivaji Patnaik of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), Krishna Chandra Patra of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), former Rajya Sabha member Rama Chandra Khuntia of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and Surendra Prasad Ray of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sabha.
The minimum wage rate for the semi-skilled, skilled and the highly skilled category was hiked from Rs 170 to Rs 220, from Rs 190 to Rs 240 and from Rs 205 to Rs 260, respectively.
In a bid to strike an emotional chord with the working class, a major votebank, Naveen recalled that his father Biju Patnaik had hiked the minimum wage from Rs 11 a day to a whopping Rs 25 when he was the chief minister of Odisha in the early 90's.
Enlisting the welfare measures for the labourers initiated by his government, Naveen said that around 3.84 lakh construction workers had been registered with the Odisha Buildings and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and they had been given financial assistance to the tune of Rs 36 crore. Last year, two welfare schemes such as the Nirman Shramik Pucca Ghar Yojana and the pension one had been launched as well.
Under the yojana, the registered construction workers are entitled to house building assistance of Rs 1 lakh. Similarly, the elderly labourers get Rs 500 per month.
The Odisha government has also opened a toll-free telephone number (155368) for extending instant assistance to child labourers, migrant workers and beneficiaries of the Rashrtriya Swasthya Bima (National Health Insurance Scheme). So far, health assistance to the tune of Rs 103 crore has been extended to the beneficiaries of the scheme, said the chief minister.
"To eliminate child labour and extending protection and facilities to the migrant labourers, a state action plan has been drawn up. I have directed the officials to strictly enforced it," he said.
In a separate function at the Capital Hospital, Naveen launched the Rs 200-crore free medicine distribution scheme, Niramaya.
Odisha health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, who was also present at the event, said: "The scheme will be implemented in all the 30 district headquarters hospitals, three government-run medical colleges and hospitals and Capital Hospital in the first phase. It will be extended to all community and primary health centres across Odisha in the next phase."
Medicines will be given to patients free of cost under the scheme. Even the drugs for cancer, haemophilia, thalassemia and sickle cell will also be available.
"There will be prescription audit. Stringent action will be taken against the doctors, who do not prescribe right medicine," said the health minister.
