E-Paper
Govt eases scholarship rules for children of unorganised workers
The government eases scholarship rules for children of unorganised workers, benefiting over 100,000 students and settling 700,000 inoperative EPF accounts.
The government has eased norms to allow children of eligible unorganised workers to avail of both welfare-based and merit-based scholarships and rules are being amended to give effect to the changes that are aligned with the Social Security Code 2020, Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday.
The changes will allow students receiving the ministry’s scholarship under the education component of the labour welfare scheme to also receive other merit-based scholarships offered by the central or state governments, as per their qualifying benchmarks, according to the minister.
“This amendment to the welfare scheme is in line with the spirit of the Social Security Code 2020 and will benefit over 100,000 students,” Mandaviya said.
In another move, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to settle over 700,000 inoperative accounts and transfer accumulated savings worth nearly ₹30.52 crore to their subscribers’ bank accounts, a pilot that will pave the way for a clean-up of 3.1 million such non-active subscriptions, a labour ministry official said.
The specific scheme under which the new scholarship benefits will apply is called the Financial Assistance for Education to the Wards of Beedi/Cine/Iron, Manganese and Chrome ore (IOMC)/Limestone and Dolomite ore (LSD)/Mica mines workers – Pre & Post-Matric.
Accounts in which there is no credit of provident-fund contributions for more than 36 months are categorized as inoperative and no interest is credited in them. The move is part of a pilot to settle a total of 3.1 million dead accounts which together have accumulated savings of ₹10,903 crore.
A total of 711000 such subscriptions, which are seeded with Aadhaar, the 12-digit biometric, and have deposits of up to ₹1000 will be closed soon and their amounts returned to their owners, according to the official.
“This is being done so that people with inoperative accounts, who may have money left in them, get their dues. The EPFO doesn’t own these sums and therefore they will be returned. Since these PF deposits are linked to active KYC-enabled bank accounts, the amounts can be easily returned,” the official said.
