Madurai
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has put forth a series of queries to the Construction Workers Welfare Board to answer with regard to providing financial assistance to the workers. The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to the State to provide adequate COVID-19 financial assistance to these workers.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam directed the Construction Workers Welfare Board to file an affidavit with regard to the number of registered workers on their roll, details of those who had renewed and those who had not renewed their registration and how many had renewed through online mode.
The court was hearing the public interest litigation petition filed by the Thamizhaga Kattida Thozhilalar Madhiya Sangam. The sangam sought a direction to the State government to provide COVID-19 financial assistance to these workers irrespective of whether they had renewed their membership or not.
During the course of the hearing, Senior Counsel P. Wilson submitted that once a construction worker was registered with the Board and assuming that he had not renewed his membership, he is deemed to continue in the register of the Board until and unless the registration is cancelled in the manner known to law.
He pointed out that the State government had extended COVID-19 relief measures to the Boards representing unregistered sector workers. However, the same was not extended to the construction workers who were registered but had not renewed the registration due to various reasons.
Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian submitted that most of the workers registered with the Board were inter-state workers and were large in number. In the absence of renewal, it was difficult to enumerate them for the purpose of giving benefits, he said. The case was adjourned till July 28 for filing of the counter affidavit.
