Bhubaneswar: As many as 40,088 labourers from Odisha, with the highest from Bolangir district, have migrated to other states for jobs, Labour and ESI Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak said, Thursday.
Responding to a query of Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati in the state Assembly, Nayak said the state government has provided licences to 626 labour contractors under Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 till October this year.
“As many as 40,088 labourers from Odisha have migrated to other states for jobs through these 626 contractors,” the Labour minister said.
Nayak said the highest of 26,151 workers from Bolangir district have migrated to other states for employment purposes, followed by 8,205 from Nuapada, 1,467 from Ganjam and 650 from Kalahandi. “As many as nine districts – Angul, Bhadrak, Boudh, Deograh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Sonepur and Sundargarh – have reported zero migration for job,” the Labour and ESI minister said.
The state government has been introducing various measures for providing employment opportunities to the migrant labourers, he said.
It has launched a special package for migrant labourers under 20 blocks in Bolangir, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Nuapada districts, said Nayak.
“The state government has been providing 300 days of work to the labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in many areas of Odisha. Steps are also being taken to include the migrant labourers under various welfare schemes of the government,” the Labour and ESI minister pointed out.
Meanwhile, responding to a question of Salipur MLA Prasanta Behera, the Labour and ESI minister said 143 migrant labourers from Odisha have died in other states and 10 outside India in the last three years. “The bodies of all the 153 have been brought back,” Nayak added.
Agencies
