The state government has taken up the task of regularising the services of over one lakh workers engaged by the successive governments since 1994 in various departments.Officials say the number of these temporary workers, which was thought to be nearly 60,000, has been established to be 1,20,000 through Aadhaar-based biometric identification.“We had the notion that the number of workers is only 60,000, but after we asked them to enroll through Aadhaar, the number swelled up to 1,20,000,” said a senior official in the Finance Department.Without framing wage policy for the workers, the previous governments had engaged these workers for vote bank under 14 different categories, including casual labourers, seasonal workers and without wages workers, the official said.He said these workers were drawing wages once or twice in a year from the budget meant for the operations and maintenance of their respective departments.

The state Cabinet on Monday accepted the report of the high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary BB Vyas, laying out a roadmap for absorption and regularisation of these workers to ensure their sustainable livelihood.The Cabinet asked the Finance Department to work out concrete measures to operationalise the roadmap to meet the long-standing demand of such persons.To absorb this huge number of workers, officials said the Finance Department was mulling to establish the Government Manpower Supply Corporation (GMSC), which would be funded by the government to provide these persons work as well as monthly wages.However, the legislators have been asking the government to regularise the workers as a one-time solution. “We are also considering regularising them as per duration of their work experience with their respective departments,” a senior PDP minister said.The GMSC is the brainchild of Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, who declared in the Legislative Assembly that it has become a “human issue as the livelihood of families of 60,000 workers was involved in their engagement”.

Govt mulls setting up corporation 

• Officials say the number of these temporary workers, which was thought to be nearly 60,000, has been established to be 1,20,000 through Aadhaar-based biometric identification
• Without framing wage policy for the workers, the previous governments had engaged these workers for vote bank under 14 different categories
• To absorb this huge number of workers, officials said the Finance Department was mulling to establish the Government Manpower Supply Corporation, which would be funded by the government to provide these persons work as well as monthly wages