‘Cancel tenders awarded to NGOs closely associated with Minister Santosh Lad’

Karnataka State Construction Labours Union Joint Coordination Committee has demanded that the State government cancel tenders awarded to private entities, including NGOs.

District president of the Coordination Committee Prabhudev Yelsanghi and the former member of the Construction Workers Welfare Board, Kalaburagi Division, Shankar Kattisanghavi, addressing presspersons in Kalaburagi on Sunday, urged the State government to repeal the tenders awarded to non-government organisations (NGOs) for conducting skill development training programmes for organized and unorganised workers.

They said that the tenders of skill development training and other schemes have been awarded to NGOs run by close associates of Labour Minister Santosh Lad. They said that the company providing skill development, learning and bridge training to workers conducted a three-hour training session and issued a 10-day training certificates to workers.

Mr. Yelsanghi demanded that the government increase scholarship for the children of construction workers and provide ₹5 lakh financial assistance for the construction of houses to genuine construction workers registered with the board.

Their demand also included compensation of ₹10 lakh to families in case of accidental death of construction workers, implementation of Employees State Insurance (ESI) and Provident Fund (PF) schemes for construction workers and unorganized manual workers.

Mr. Kattisanghavi said that the Coordination Committee members will meet Mr. Lad in Kalaburagi on Tuesday during his scheduled visit to inaugurate houses built for construction workers and submit a memorandum with a charter of demands.