Beneficiaries need not pay premium for availing PF under SSY: Moloy Ghatak

Kolkata: State Labour minister Moloy Ghatak in the Assembly on Tuesday stressed upon the move taken by the Mamata Banerjee government in paying the entire premium of the beneficiaries eager to avail provident funds under Samajik Suraksha Yojana (SSY).

Incidentally, the state Finance minister Amit Mitra during his budget speech in the Assembly on Monday announced that the beneficiaries no longer need to pay the premium for availing various facilities under the SSY scheme as the state government would bear the entire cost.

Earlier, each beneficiary had to pay Rs 25 per month for availing provident funds after he/she attains the age of 60.

Prodded by the Chief Minister, the state government has decided to remove the financial burden on the workers belonging to various unorganised sectors.

While addressing the Assembly, Ghatak said that SSY schemes were introduced by the state government in 2017, following the initiative of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who emphasised the improvement of socio-economic conditions of the people working in various unorganised sectors.

The decision to amalgamate various social security schemes for the people belonging to the unorganised sectors under SSY had been a significant step for the overall development of the people, said Ghatak.

The minister also told the house that after coming to power the Mamata Banerjee government has increased the budgetary allocation in the social services scheme manifold for the benefits of the beneficiaries.

To provide uniform benefits to every unorganised worker, the common benefits of all these schemes were integrated and converged into a single and more comprehensive scheme for the benefits of the beneficiaries.

"During the Left Front government in 2010-11 fiscal, the budgetary allocation by the erstwhile government on social security schemes for the unorganized sectors remained at Rs 9.25 crore while in the past nine years the budgetary allocation by the present government has gone up to Rs 1,710 crore," Ghatak said in the Assembly.

The various schemes which fall under the SSY are State Assisted Scheme of Provident Fund for Unorganised

Workers (SASPFUW), West Bengal Unorganised Sector Workers Health Security Scheme (WBUSWHSS), Social Security Scheme for Construction Workers (BOCWA), West Bengal Transport Workers Social Security Scheme (WBTWSSS) and West Bengal Bidi Workers' Welfare Scheme (WBBWWS).