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The Centre is working on a model to improve wages across its infrastructure projects by earmarking a quarter of the allocation for paying wages, said Minister for Skills and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan.
“There is a budgeted government expenditure of ₹1 lakh crore for the power sector. By our estimates, 25 per cent of this amount is for paying the wages of workers. This will cover skilled and unskilled workmen, managers, supervisors and entrepreneurs. The amount being considered is to the tune of ₹ 25,000 crore as wages from the power sector reforms alone,” he said.
“This is a new model devised by the government to ensure quality wages to the workmen. It is being implemented on a pilot basis with the Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Road Transport. It will soon be institutionalised across the board,” he added.
Skill India Mission
Pradhan was speaking at function to mark a partnership between the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to include manpower training for electrical project development under the Skill India Mission.
The partnership between the two ministries is warranted as the Centre’s ‘Saubhagya’ scheme has defined an ambitious goal to ensure 100 per cent household electrification across the nation by December 2018.
“There is a need for 35,000 trained people to meet the Saubhagya target alone. If taking into account all power sector reforms being implemented, such as village electrification and setting up new distribution lines. We will be spending around ₹ 1 lakh crore. All these schemes have to be implemented by the end of FY19. By our estimates, these schemes will need at least 5,000 lakh man hours,” said Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Renewable Energy, RK Singh.
The demand for skilled power sector workers has emanated from State governments that have been given the responsibility of implementing household electrification along with the Rural Electrification Corporation. According to government officials, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam, among others, have started holding camps for the same.
Highlighting the manpower crunch, an Odisha government representative said: “We are unable to get skilled workers to carry out the electrification projects. The paucity is such that we have to get workers from West Bengal. At times they are booked for a year in advance, slowing down the pace of project implementation.”
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