‘More than 4.70 lakh transport workers across Bengal to be covered under social security schemes’

Kolkata: The state Labour department has laid special emphasis on the inclusion of all transport workers across the state under the ambit of Bina Mulye Samajik Suraksha Yojana (BMSSY) and West Bengal Transport Workers Social Welfare Scheme (WBTWSSS) for guaranteeing their social security. Presently, there are over 4.70 lakh registered transport workers in the state.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed us to ensure that not a single eligible beneficiary is deprived of the facilities of the social welfare schemes that he/ she is entitled for. We are organising camps at bus stands in the district as well as the sub-division level for registering the transport workers considering the fact that many of them have been unable to reach out to Duare Sarkar camps for registering their names for BMSSY or WBTWSSS due to their work schedule,” said Moloy Ghatak, state Labour minister.

Broadly three types of benefits are extended by the state Labour department under BMSSY—death benefits, provident fund (PF) benefits and disability benefits. The death and the disability benefit varies in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh. In case of PF benefits, if a worker enrolls at the age of 18, he gets a benefit of Rs 2.5 lakh after attaining 60 years of age.

For WBTWSSS, a transport worker needs to be registered under the scheme for a period of 5 years. He will be eligible for pension after attaining 60 years of age and will continue to get the benefit till his death. After his death, the next of kin will get pension at the rate of 50 per cent or 50 per cent of the amount that the worker used to get before his death.

The pension amount is Rs 1,500 per month and will be enhanced by Rs 10 for each completed year as a beneficiary. The family member will get Rs 750 per month or 50 per cent of the last pension amount drawn by the beneficiary.

As per data available with the Labour department till July, around 4 lakh workers have enrolled themselves under BMSSY and 91,185 have received benefits worth over Rs 105 crore. When it comes to WBTWSSS, the total number of pensioners under the scheme is 7266 with the department disbursing over Rs 54.42 crore. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2017 launched Samajik Suraksha Yojana, the first-of-its-kind in the country to cover every eligible unorganised worker as per the approved list of unorganised industries (46) and self-employed occupations (15) notified by state the Labour department.

From April 1, 2020 in a move to assist the enrolled beneficiaries further, the state government decided to waive off the beneficiary contribution of Rs 25/- a month towards subscription payment for provident funds and decided to contribute the amount itself on behalf of the beneficiaries.

The scheme was renamed as BMSSY where any enrolled beneficiary can avail all the available benefits without expending a single rupee.