SRINAGAR : Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar today chaired the 19th meeting of Board of Directors (BoDs) of J&K Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board (JKBOCWWB) at Civil Secretariat here.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, PWD, Shailendra Kumar; Commissioner Secretary Labour and Employment department, Sarita Chauhan; CEO/Secretary, JKBOCWWB, Munir-ul-Islam; Labour Commissioner, J&K, Abdul Rashid War; DG, Budget, M.Y Itoo; Director Rural Development Department, Kashmir, Imamuddin; Special Secretary, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, representatives of various labour unions, other members of Board and senior officials of the concerned departments both in person and through video conferencing.

During the meeting detailed deliberations were held on different dimensions of the organisation besides several significant decisions were also arrived at for strengthening of the organisation.

Addressing the meeting, Advisor Bhatnagar, who is also the chairman of JKBOCWWB, said that our country is one of the most developing nation and emerging economies in the world and our labour force is our main contributor for achieving the feat of developed nation in coming years.

The Advisor enjoined upon the officers of JKBOCWWB to amplify Information Education and Communication activities across Jammu and Kashmir for maximum registration of construction workers. He also asked them to organise awareness camps so that the workers take due benefits of various welfare schemes being run for them by the government.

While reviewing the progress on disbursing welfare funds to workers, Advisor Bhatnagar asked the JKBOCWWB to create a centralized and user friendly system for verification of beneficiaries so that the cases can be disposed off timely and due assistance is provided to beneficiaries.

During the meeting, the BoDs took some significant decisions for the welfare of the construction workers and other labour class.

The BoDs approved the construction of office building for JKBOCWWB which will also contain a sarai for labourers having all convenience facilities.

The BoDs also recommended the constitution of Advisory Board under the chairmanship of Administrative Secretary Labour and Employment department with representatives from Finance, School Education, other departments as well as representatives of Labour unions to assess the need for increasing assistance under different heads.

During the meeting, the BoDs also approved the proposed budget for the financial year 2022-23 with an outlay of Rs. 12.93 crores for the JKBOCWWB besides a proposed outlay of Rs. 189.86 crores for financial year 2022-23 was also approved by the BoDs for different welfare schemes of the construction workers.

Further, for the security of construction workers, the BoDs asked the management of JKBOCWWB to conduct surprise inspections at construction sites for checking the implementation of labour codes as well as due adherence to safety measures.