‘Labourers weren’t paid during ban on construction’

The ban on construction activities during the recent emergency levels of pollution in the city left migrant labourers in the lurch as contractors refused to pay them, the Delhi government told the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) on Saturday.

The EPCA has decided to review the issue, which forced many labourers to head back to their native place, and hammer out a solution as it concerned the livelihoods of thousands who flock to the Capital in search of work.

No legislation

EPCA chairman Bhure Lal and member Sunita Narain have stressed that contractors would have to pay the labourers during the period of the ban.

But officials from Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) States, in a recent meeting with the pollution watchdog, pointed out that in the absence of any legislation that provides the workers the safety of paid leave, it becomes next to impossible to enforce the direction.