Maha govt to form committee to ensure transparency in schemes implemented for workers welfare

Mumbai, July 14 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced that the government will set up a committee under the chairmanship of Labour Minister Akash Fundkar to ensure transparency in the schemes implemented for the welfare of workers.

He intervened during the discussion on a calling attention motion moved by Congress legislator Sanjay Meshram when the NCP SP legislator Jayant Patil asked the government to further streamline the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system being implemented by the labour department to provide benefits under various schemes to the workers.

He said that the Labour Minister-led committee will be formed soon to make suggestions with regard to DBT and ensure the transparent implementation of various schemes meant for workers.

Fundkar in his reply that the Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board has been established under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and from July 2020, the process of registration, renewal and distribution of benefits is being implemented completely online through the IWBMS system.

Benefits like safety kits, household goods kits are being provided directly to construction workers through the DBT method and are distributed only after biometric authentication. Due to this, human intervention is not possible, and transparency has been maintained in the process.

He said that safety kits have been distributed to four thousand workers and household kits to nine thousand workers between January 2025 and June 2025 in Umred, Bhiwapur and Kuhi talukas of the Umred assembly constituency.

“In some places, cases of registration of workers based on bogus documents by private brokers have been exposed. Vigilance teams have been formed against this, and some criminal cases have been registered in Nagpur, Amravati, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nashik, Pune and Konkan divisions. Complaints received through various channels are being investigated, and strict action is being taken from time to time. Strict and transparent steps will be taken to curb such bogus registration in the future as well,” he told the state assembly.

Assembly members Vijay Wadettiwar and Praveen Datke also took part in the discussion.

--IANS

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