PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun
The Bharatiya Janata Party State president and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt raised the issue of opening Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) district offices in Uttarakhand in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. He urged the Central government to expand EPFO services in the State on the lines of other States to ensure better access for workers and provident fund members.
Bhatt said that the State currently has only two regional EPFO offices, located in Dehradun and Haldwani, serving the Garhwal and Kumaon regions. He pointed out that in other states, district-level offices have been set up in addition to regional offices to reach beneficiaries more effectively, but Uttarakhand has none. He highlighted that Haridwar district alone has around 20 lakh provident fund members, with more than three lakh active contributors.
He informed that the State’s EPFO regional committee, chaired by the Uttarakhand labour secretary, had earlier proposed authorising the Haridwar service centre as a district office but there has been no significant progress on this proposal. Bhatt requested the Central government to direct the departments concerned to take necessary action for opening district offices in the State.
