Pay workers in cheques: Labour minister
HYDERABAD: Payment of Wages Act would be amended so that all the payments to workers will be made through bank accounts or cheque, there will be no more cash transactions, said union minister of state for Labour, Bandaru Dattatreya on the sidelines of ‘State Level Bankers’ Committee Meeting’ held at State Bank of Hyderabad’s (SBH) head office here, on Saturday.
The meeting was organised to review and plan strategy on opening accounts for workers in organised and unorganised sector. The Union Minister and SBH officials, said that camps were organised at different levels and accounts were opened. “Our department organised 45,000 camps in the country and opened nearly 10 lakh accounts.
In Telangana, 2,114 camps were conducted and 31,213 applications were received for opening of accounts,” Dattatreya said. The Union minister stressed that services should be offered to workers in the unorganised sector, such as construction labour, those who make beedis, contract workers and others. He said that after bank accounts are opened, workers will reap benefits of cashless transactions.
When asked about how much time is expected for workers in the unorganised sector to shift to cashless transactions, the labour minister said that they will opt for cashless transactions only after foolproof arrangements are in place, until then workers should get paid in cash. SBH’s Chief general manager (Retail Banking), V Viswanathan said that the review meetings were held earlier to discuss how the situation can be made easier for people and how cash can be dispensed to banks in far away places. At the review meeting, deputy labour commissioner at Medak district, Koteshwar Rao said that State Bank of India asked workers to pay `52 (`30 for application, `22 for ATM card) from workers. Telangana Home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, general manager (HR & PBD) at SBH, K Harihar Rao, managers of banks, officials from Labour Department, and others were present.