Industrialists asked to open salary a/cs for staff

DHANBAD: To boost cashless economy in Dhanbad, the labour department in collaboration with the DC and district lead manager of banks, counselled members of district chamber of commerce, builder associations, industrialists to open salary accounts for their employees on Wednesday.
Labour superintendent Rakesh Kumar Sinha and his team conducted meetings with business delegates to get details of the number of employees and their bank accounts.
Sinha told TOI that the work was carried out at the direction of the state chief secretary and the target is to open zero balance salary accounts of all the employees of private firms, shops, factories by January.
"A special drive was carried out from November 25 to December 12 in different areas. More than 3,500 accounts were opened for workers in different construction sites, brick kilns and restaurants. The employers were given strict instructions to make salary payments in accordance with the shop and establishment act," Sinha said.
"Factories were also instructed to pay their contractual workers only through banks. We will inspect business units from January onwards and action will be taken against defaulters," he added.
President of Dhanbad Chamber of Commerce Rajesh Gupta said that most of the employees are reluctant to receive their salaries through bank since queuing up outside ATMs involves lot of time.
"The government is pushing us to go cashless which is neither practical nor possible. I applied for a POS machine 25 days ago in Canara Bank, Saraidhela branch. Despite knowing my designation, they did not provide me with a POS machine till date.
The government should not expect cashless economy. There is a dire need to spread an awareness drive to promote cashless transaction and it should start with the government," Gupta said.