Kejriwal govt walks extra mile for women's securtity

For enhancing women security, the Delhi Cabinet has asked the Public Works Department to improve lighting on dark stretches and also install CCTV cameras.

The Cabinet also decided to draft a new policy to revise minimum wages so as to help them lead a decent life and blacklist contractors who don’t pay minimum wages to workers. The minimum wages for unskilled workers such as peons, guards, gardeners and cleaners is Rs 9,048 per month.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Wednesday morning to share information about both the Cabinet decisions.

“Del Cabinet decides 2 revise min wages in del. HODs must ensure workers get min wages. Contractors who don’t pay min wages will b blacklistd,” tweeted Kejriwal.

“Cabinet took 2 imp decisions 4 women safety: PWD shud lit up all dark spots in Del n bring a proposal soon to put CCTV cameras all over Del,” he tweeted.

The decision to light up dark stretches is in addition to the recent steps taken by the Kejriwal government to install CCTV cameras in public transport buses and post marshals in buses for women security.

Wage revision
On workers’ wage revision, the government is planning to bring in the new policy that will emphasise on how much wages will be sufficient for leading a decent life in Delhi, said a statement.

The new policy will emphasize on how much wages will be sufficient for leading a decent life in Delhi.

The minimum wages were last increased by about 5 per cent in April. The government notified revised monthly wages for “unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled” workers on that occassion. The wage structure applies to eight-and-a-half hours of daily work.

The minimum wages for unskilled workers such as peons, guards, gardeners and cleaners was raised from  from Rs 8,632 to Rs 9,048 per month.

For semi-skilled workers, fitters and welders, wages were increase from Rs 9,542 to Rs 10,010 per month. For skilled workers, like drivers, tailors and masons, the new minimum wage was raised from Rs 10,478 to Rs 10,998 per month.

For graduate workers, the minimum wages were increased from Rs 11,414 to Rs 11,986.
A government statement said it is has been receiving complaints that many contractors keep the ATM cards of the labourers and unauthorisedly withdraw part of the cash which should be paid to labourers.

Several other similar anti-labour measures are being resorted to by some contractors. The government has also decided to look into such complaints seriously.

On Tuesday, the government announced its plans to hire a consultant and spend over Rs 1,000 crore unspent  funds on welfare of construction workers in the unorganised sector by building hostels, schools for their children and reserving beds for them in hospitals.

Labour Minister Gopal Rai said the government also plans to raise the compensation for accidental death of workers from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh, compensation for natural death from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh and assistance for daughters’ marriage from Rs 10,000 to Rs 51,000.

The compensation for permanent injury would be raised from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh and the financial assistance limit for buying and constructing a house would be raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh, Rai said.