Himachal CM Urged Labour Minister to Provide Financial Assistance through ESIC Amid Lockdown

The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has written to the Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar to direct Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) provides financial assistance to workers registered to with ESIC amid lockdown.

In its letter written to Labour Minister Gangwar, CM Jai Ram Thakur asserted that the state may find it difficult to abide by the government's order to make payment to their workers, on the due date without any deduction.

''I would like to apprise you that the industrial sector in Himachal Pradesh may find it difficult and even in some cases impossible t comply with the government directions to continue to pay wages for the lockdown period as the overall industrial setup is not that sound and strengthened,'' the letter read.

Thakur further mentioned that most of them are Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with the limited financial ability to sustain prolonged closure and still meet their obligations towards employees.

''I would like to make a special request to you to issue directions to the ESIC to ring in proposed changes for providing unemployment benefits like the release of financial assistance to the workers registered with the ESIC for the lockdown period so that it could provide some succour to thousands of workers rendered unemployed,'' he avowed.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a notification dated on March 29, has directed all the employers make payments of wages to their workers, on the due date without any deduction during lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak.