25-04-2025
Building workers demand revival of welfare board
Vijayawada: Following the call given by the State Committee of AP Building & Other Construction Workers Federation (CITU), the Building Workers Union of the NTR District Committee, organised a protest demonstration at Dharna Chowk here on Thursday, urging the state government to immediately resolve the issues faced by construction workers.
P Apparao and Pilli Narasimha Rao, district president and secretary of the Building Workers Union, stated that the previous government had done injustice to construction workers. Before the elections, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan and Lokesh promised in every meeting to revive the welfare board and implement welfare schemes if their coalition came to power.
However, they expressed anguish that despite ten months in power, the coalition government has taken no steps to fulfil this promise. NTR district president of CITU A Venkateswara Rao said that Rs 4,298 crore is currently available in the state's Welfare Board, as recently announced by the Labour Minister in the Legislative Council.
He stressed that the government does not need to allocate even a single rupee. He demanded immediate revival of the Building Workers Welfare Board and the implementation of welfare schemes.
The previous YSRCP government halted ongoing welfare schemes for workers by issuing Circular 1214. The coalition government had promised to cancel this circular and revive the Welfare Board.
The leaders warned that if the State government fails to honour its promises, construction workers will launch an agitation.
CITU Central City leaders M Baburao, Y Subbarao, Building Workers Union Central City Secretary B Govindu, East City Secretary VB Raju, Ali, Babu, Irfan, Azaruddin, West City leaders S Subbareddy, Joseph, and Building Workers Union leaders V Kanakarao, Ch Srinivas, Suribabu, Ranasthalam Satyanarayana, Satyam, T Harikrishna, Simhachalam and others participated.
