The Delhi government, on Tuesday, decided to double the financial benefits it owes to thousands of construction workers, mostly migrants, engaged in odd jobs across the Capital thanks to funds that have accrued, but hadn't been disbursed, for over more than a decade.
A senior government official said that the Delhi government had also decided to extend a gamut of its welfare schemes – including mohalla clinics and educational opportunities for academically-inclined children through ‘pratibha academies’ – to building and construction workers.
The decisions, which included more beds in hospitals, hostels, toilets and Aam Aadmi canteens reserved for construction workers in addition to schools, creches and anganwadi centres for their children, were taken at the conclusion of a meeting of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board held under the chairmanship of Labour Minister Gopal Rai.
“A special committee of experts will be constituted for working out modalities, working details, modules and cost implications along with a time line...emphasis will be laid on providing education to talented children and basic facilities at all Labour Chowks, where workers congregate in search of work, over the coming days,” Mr. Rai said at a press conference at the conclusion of the meeting. According to Mr. Rai, the most significant among the aims of the committee would be the registration of building and construction workers so that financial emoluments they are entitled to could be disbursed with zero leakages.
As reported by The Hindu in a report on October 8, the Labour Department has already begun the process of registering such workers across construction sites in the Capital. Since 2002, a senior government official told The Hindu , the Labour Department had collected an estimated Rs. 1700 crore as cess on building and other construction work being carried out in Delhi which can only be used to extend benefits to construction workers.
The major contribution in what has now become a consolidated fund, is understood to have come from development work carried out through the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the Public Works of Department (PWD), Municipal Corporations, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), among others. Paperwork required for the process, Mr. Rai said on Tuesday, had been simplified and the Department had now decided to develop a software for processing online registration or renewal of membership in addition to processing claims for disbursement of the financial benefits, most of which have been doubled, in a speedy manner.
