Labourers’ kids get Rs50.4m scholarships

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Labour and Culture Shaukat Yousafzai has said that the Labour Department has its own 62 hospitals and 45 schools in the province where labourers and their families can receive free medical treatment and free education.

He said that 2056 flats are being constructed in Regi Lalma to provide accommodation to the Labourers while practical steps have been taken to collect data of labourers in the province. The minister said that Rs 241 million has been set aside for the child labour survey in the province. He expressed these views while addressing a press conference on the occasion of distributing scholarships worth Rs. 50.4 million in various educational institutions for free education of children of labourers. Secretary Labour Kamran Rehman was also present.

The provincial minister said that scholarships worth about Rs. 600 million could be distributed among the children of labourers in the province but due to non-availability of proper data of labourers, workers were deprived of these benefits. He said the past governments did not pay attention to data collection, adding at present, 51,000 workers were registered and the tally would be taken up to 90,000. Shaukat Yousafzai said after registration with Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution and Employees Social Security Institution, labourers would be able to avail free treatment and education as well as other benefits and apart from scholarships, Rs 7.1 million has also been allocated as pocket money for children of registered labourers. The minister said that Rs. 50 million scholarships are being given only to registered labourers. He said that efforts were being made to bring the mines and minerals workers under the purview of the Labour Department.

The minister said that death grant for registered labourers has been increased from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 7 lakh and the marriage grant to Rs 200,000. Shaukat Yousafzai said that illegal recruitments were made in the Labour Department in the past, adding unrelated staff was recruited in the Working Folks Grammar Schools which affected the quality of education at these schools. Replying to a question, Shaukat Yousafzai said that the Bus Rapid Transit Project has been completed which could be inaugurated any time, even today.