Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers' Board will be able to collect about Rs 1,200 crore as cess in the current fiscal, which is being levied on all the private construction projects in the State, said the Labour Minister, Mr Hasan Mushrif, in the Legislative Council on Friday.
He was replying to a question raised by Mr Kiran Pawaskar, who had earlier moved a private member Bill.
Mr Mushrif said the State Government levied one per cent cess on all private projects costing more that Rs 10 lakh this fiscal and till date has collected Rs 188 crore. The collected funds will be used for welfare activities such as daycare centres for workers' children, pension and insurance schemes which would be introduced in the future, he said.
The workers' board has been in force from May 1, 2008. It will soon be reconstituted and five domain experts from trade unions and construction industry will be inducted for advising the government. Till date, about 1,827 construction companies and 21,462 workers have registered themselves with the board, Mr Mushrif said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, told the Legislative Assembly that strict action would be taken against illegal constructions.
Bank security
The State government has decided to carry out a security survey of banks in the wake rising number of bank robberies.
The Home Minister, Mr R.R. Patil told the State Assembly during a discussion that many banks were not observing security norms as prescribed by the RBI.
A circular issued by the RBI requires banks to install closed-circuit television (CCTV), special phone lines, and alarm systems. But many banks are not implementing these measures,
“We will conduct a survey to identify such banks. The list will be forwarded to the RBI, which will force these banks to observe the security norms,” Mr Patil said.