The Union government's focus area is development, which will be achieved by all sections of people together, Union Minister for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge) Bandaru Dattatreya said here today.
"In our (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi's government, the focus area is development... Development... And the development will be done by all sections of people together. All are consumers of Bharat Matha", he said.
He was responding to a query on reported comments of BJP MP Gopal Shetty who had said that a private member's bill in Lok Sabha proposed to make it mandatory for Parliamentarians to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' after taking oath.
Dattatreya said the Centre has accorded priority to providing access to education, health and social security to 40 crore unorganised workers' in the country.
"There are more than 40 crore unorganised workers. We want to give unorganised workers like cine workers, anganwadi workers, auto-rickshaw and rickshaw pullers more rights on access to education, health and social security. These things are priority for us," he said.
Earlier, participating in the May Day function of Film Employees Federation of South India, he said the government would consider various requests of the Union members.
"Since there is model code of conduct here due to elections, I am unable to assure you anything. We will consider the requests after the elections", he said.
FEFSI President G Shiva presented a memorandum to the Minister, requesting him to set up a separate dispensary for members at the ESI hospital, pension scheme, new block for FEFSI members and to resume scholarships from the Centre that were suspended.
To another query, he said banking and insurance sectors
are likely to be impacted more due to the strike by the trade unions tomorrow.
Out of the 12 demands of the Trade Unions, eight are related to the labour department and seven of them have been agreed to, Dattatreya said.
"The seven demands include wage revision, bonus for workers from Rs 10,000-21,000 and social security, which is a prime aspect for workers, particularly skilled workers like anganwadis, Asha workers and Mid-day meal workers," he said.
