Social security scheme to be implemented in integrated way: PM Prachanda

Kathmandu, Aug 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' today said the social security scheme would be run as an intensive campaign by integrating it under the integrated concept for receiving the expected returns on the development of the economy.     

Structures would be created for implementing the scheme in an integrated way for its sustenance and removing dual benefits while making many social security allowance schemes based on contribution, he said while addressing the inaugural of the social security plan for workers and self-employed people in the informal sector at an event organised here by the Social Security Fund.     

"The Fund is an important mechanism of the state for neglected, suppressed and oppressed people of the society. The mechanism has the ability to increase entire production by making the internal production cycle active. On the other hand, the hopes of workers are there in such funds. The scheme helps in the context when workers in the informal sector have to work until their body allows and they have to retire empty-handed from the job."     

The constitution cannot be fully implemented until workers' right to social security is implemented, he said.     

Stating that Nepali migrant workers have been covered by the social security scheme, he assured of fully implementing the government's campaign to bring all workers under the scheme.     

Stating that guaranteeing the rights of workers including social security was a mandatory condition for the establishment of a socialism-oriented political and economic system as envisaged by the constitution of Nepal, Prime Minister Prachanda argued that social security was not a general concept.     

"It would rather create an enabling environment for all citizens to avail education, healthcare services, employment, concession and rewards without discrimination," asserted Prachanda.     

Pressing for effective implementation of the 'Contribution-based Social Security Act-2074 BS' to make social security sustainable and organized, he pledged to mobilize regulatory agencies to oversee the implementation of the Act keeping in view that no citizens are deprived of benefits of the social security act.     

Furthermore, he said efforts would be coordinated for registration of the establishment, renewal, taxation system, and participation in the procurement process among others to ensure that workers from formal sectors are affiliated with the Fund.     

To enhance the capacity of the Fund and to maintain its credibility and ownership, he also assured to rope in the government offices' workers working on the basis of contract and daily wages in the Fund.     

He said that the government was serious towards enforcing the co-contribution of the State for the welfare of workers in the informal sector.     

Similarly, Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharat Singh Bhandari articulated the readiness of the government to revise and implements various plans unveiled by the Fund to contribute towards poverty reduction and increase the attraction of the labour force in the labour market.     

Likewise, Chief Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal suggested that the Fund should prepare to maintain records and manage the statistics of the Fund keeping in view the increasing number of its beneficiaries.     

Joint Trade Union Labour Coordination Committee (JTUCC) President Binod Shrestha underscored the practical implementation of labour rights issues provisioned in the constitution, law and policy.     

Present at the event were representatives from employer companies and international labour organizations. (RSS)