The State government on Wednesday told the Madras High Court that construction workers who had failed to register their names with the welfare board or to renew it once in five years would not be eligible to COVID-19 relief provided by the government.
Appearing before a Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha, Additional Advocate General Narmadha Sampath stated that a duty had been cast upon construction workers to get registered. “If they had not done, they can’t seek any benefit,” she said.
The submission was made in response to a batch of cases filed by Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat and others through senior counsel V. Prakash and advocates V. Ajay Khose and Gautam S. Raman seeking relief even for those who had not registered themselves.
Mr. Prakash claimed that the government had extended financial assistance and other COVID-19 relief to even unregistered weavers and so on. Therefore, a similar benefit should be extended to unregistered construction workers and whose renewal applications were pending, he said.
The senior counsel also alleged that some of the registered construction workers too had not been provided with relief though they were under severe distress due to the lockdown. However, the AAG rebutted saying, “this submission may not be correct.”
After hearing both sides, the judges adjourned the cases to Monday since a copy of the counter affidavit filed by the State government was not before them.
