Rs 385, Rs 435, Rs 495, respectively
PNS
: With the beginning of the new financial year, the State Government has revised minimum daily wages of unskilled, semi skilled, skilled and highly-skilled labourers.
According to an official notification issued by the State Labour Commissioner Dr N Thirumala Naik, the daily wages of the labourers have been increased by hiking their Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA) by Rs 12.
With the hike in VDA, the minimum daily wages for unskilled, semi skilled, skilled, and highly skilled workers have been increased to Rs 345, Rs 385, Rs 435 and Rs 495, respectively, with effect from April 1, 2023.
The State Government has been revising the daily wages as per the advice of State Minimum Wages Advisory Board, which had asked the State to adopt a system of revision of the special allowance called VDA @ 0.90 per point rise in the Consumer Price Index Number for industrial workers (base 2001-100) as admissible and shall be declared at half yearly interval (April 1 and October 1) from the date of notification of revised wages, starting from April 1, 2019.
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State to have new Coop Policy soon
--‘OSCB accounted for 58% of total crop loans disbursed last yr’
PNS
BHUBANESWAR: Cooperation Principal Secretary Sanjeev Chadha has said the Odisha Government is formulating a new Cooperative Policy to boost the cooperation sector. All the stakeholders are being consulted before the policy takes a final shape.
Chadha said the Odisha Government has been extending significant support to the Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB), which has accounted for crop loan dispensation in excess of Rs 16,000 crore with achievement of 58 % of the total crop loan disbursed in the State last year.
Principal Secretary Chadha was speaking in the Platinum Jubilee Celebration of the OSCB here on April 2. While the OSCB is extending all- out support for the farmers of the State, he urged all the Government Departments to maintain account with the OSCB, said Chadha.
Chadha said that with support from the State Government in shape of interest subvention, crop loan up to Rs 1 lakh is made available to farmers including tenant farmers, sharecroppers and oral lessees at an applicable rate of 0 % rate of interest, whereas crop loan from Rs 1lakh to Rs 3 lakh is being made available at 2 % rate of interest.
Chadha briefed about the OSCB, which was initially registered as the Orissa Provincial Cooperative Bank Ltd, Cuttack on April 2, 1948 and renamed as the Odisha State Cooperative Bank Ltd on January 22, 1957.
It is the apex bank of the Short Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS) in Odisha comprising 2,710 PACS at the grassroots level and 17 Central Cooperative Banks (CCBs) at the district level. The bank has a working capital base of Rs 21,442 crore and earning profit since inception.
At the end of March, 2022, the STCCS has issued 41.04 lakh KCCs to the farmers of which 34, 63,903 KCC holders have been provided with agriculture loans of Rs 16,193.18 crore during the year 2021-22.
The OSCB has facilitated organisation and credit linkage of 14,982 SHGs and 39,657 Joint Liability Groups to meet the credit requirements of the sharecroppers, tenant farmers and oral lessees of the State, Chadha informed.
