'Registration for Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana began on December 1'

Labour Minister P T Parameshwar Naik informed the Legislative Council that the registration of employees for availing benefits of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana had commenced on December 1 and the Centre too had approved the registrations in one go.

Congress’ R V Venkatesh, who raised the matter on behalf of K Govindraj, said about 1.50 crore labourers from the unorganised sector were not getting the benefits of the programme with officials not showing interest in the exercise. Naik said the government had identified 1.12 crore families for the programme and the work had commenced on December 1. He said the department would establish Human Resources Development centres in all districts of the State to help candidates with skilled labour and other educational qualifications to get employment.