Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday accused the previous government of according special favours to alleged Saifai (Etawah) and Rampur syndicates and exploiting outsourced employees.
Around 3.5 lakh outsourced employees work in various government departments.
Though Yogi did not directly name the Samajwadi Party or any of its leaders, his reference to the SP chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and jailed SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan appeared obvious. Saifai is the home district of Akhilesh Yadav, while Azam Khan belongs to Rampur. Yogi said his government had formulated uniform policies applicable to all 75 districts of the state.
He was speaking at a programme organised here to launch the Uttar Pradesh Outsourced Services Corporation (UPCOS). He also launched the UPCOS portal and website and unveiled its logo.
“The Saifai and Rampur syndicates sucked the blood of the whole system before 2017,” Yogi said in a post on X after launching UPCOS. He alleged that a third syndicate comprised those who supplied outsourced employees and exploited them. The companies providing outsourced employees before 2017, he alleged, were owned by relatives of those in power, while outsourced employees were treated as a burden.
He said his government considered outsourced employees an asset and that the launch of UPCOS was an attack on the system that had prevailed in the state before 2017.
The chief minister said the corporation would help make outsourced employees an organised, skilled, secure and dignified workforce. He said outsourced employees did not receive remuneration commensurate with the work they performed and stressed that economic disparity needed to be addressed to eliminate social disparities. The state government has already decided that the outsourced will get a monthly honorarium of ₹16,000 to ₹20,000 per month.
Adityanath announced that outsourced employees would now receive health coverage and other benefits, besides getting their wages directly into their bank accounts by the fifth of every month. They would also be covered under EPF and ESI, he said.
The state government would bear the surcharge payable to service provider agencies, and no deduction on this account would be made from employees’ salaries. Agencies would also be required to inform the government before dismissing an outsourced employee, he said, adding that this would prevent workers from being removed on the basis of false reports.
The chief minister said ESI contributions would make employees eligible for free treatment at ESI hospitals. If they were unable to avail themselves of free treatment there, they would be eligible for Ayushman Bharat health coverage of up to ₹5 lakh for themselves and their families. Other service benefits, including maternity leave, would also be available.
Adityanath said UPCOS had signed an MoU with the State Bank of India under which employees could open zero-balance accounts. Account holders would receive accident insurance cover ranging from ₹20 lakh to ₹40 lakh.
The chief minister said employees would also be entitled to emergency medical assistance of up to ₹5 lakh. In case of an employee’s death, ₹8 lakh would be provided for the higher education of a son and ₹10 lakh for the higher education of a daughter. A maximum of ₹10 lakh would be provided for the education of up to two daughters in cases of accidental death.
Employees would be entitled to compensation of ₹30 lakh in case of complete disability and ₹15 lakh for partial disability, Adityanath added.
