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Dattatreya clarifies on KCR’s plea on PF
Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday clarified that he was only a trustee of the Employees Provident Fund and could not take decisions related to utilisation of huge deposits with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), in his individual capacity.
Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday clarified that he was only a trustee of the Employees Provident Fund and could not take decisions related to utilisation of huge deposits with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), in his individual capacity. Dattatreya was responding to a plea made by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Friday at the May Day celebrations held at Ravindra Bharati, where Dattatreya was also present.
In his address, Chandrashekar Rao made a plea to the Union Minister that huge EPFO funds of Rs 8 lakh crore should be utilised towards welfare of employees and Dattatreya, being the Union Labour Minister, could use his good offices and discretion for the purpose. However, addressing a press conference, Dattatreya appealed to Chandrashekar Rao to consider his limitations even though he is the Union Labour minister.
Dattatreya said any decision related to depositing of EPFO funds in various banks will be taken in consultation with trade union leaders, representatives of employees and portfolio managers within the Labour ministry. KCR’s suggestion was that a part of the EPFO funds can be earmarked for payment of “unemployment allowance” for six months to employees who lose their job and the allowance can be paid until the employee gets re-employment in another firm.
“Amount equal to salary of six months will be set aside. Employee who loses the job, can be paid amounts equal to one-month salary or amount equal to salary he used to earn for two months. In that case, he will be left with amount equal to salary of four months,” KCR had said.
KCR further claimed that he was able to implement such a scheme for one year when he was the Union Labour minister during the UPA-1 regime. KCR faulted the Union Labour ministry itself for focusing all the time on parking EPFO funds in one bank or the other”. Meanwhile, Dattatreya said that the Union Cabinet has decided to implement the Minimum Pension of Rs. 1,000 per month in perpetuity, whereas the previous UPA government had implemented the Minimum Pension scheme for the 2014-15 financial year.
