Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday announced that the registration and renewal of construction workers with the construction board will be done through a door-step delivery programme.
Sisodia said that the service begins from today on '1076' helpline number and no construction worker will have to stand in long queues at government offices now.
The deputy chief minister said that it is the Delhi government’s priority to ensure the construction workers in Delhi receive all benefits of the government’s various welfare schemes.
“The workers can now just dial the number 1076, and say that they're a construction worker in Delhi, and want to get registered for Delhi government’s schemes. A government executive will go to the worker’s home at a suitable time, and the documents will be uploaded there. It will be approved online and the applicant will receive the acknowledgement SMS and a call confirming his registration” Sisodia said.
Addressing the media, Delhi Secretariat, Sisodia said that construction workers' welfare cess is collected from construction companies, and this amount is used for the welfare of construction workers. To avail this amount, a construction worker needs to be a registered worker with the board, he added.
Sisodia further said that he has taken this step after seeing these workers standing troubled for hours in the long queues during his recent inspection visit to the District Labour offices.
“Due to the complex process of registration and renewal, middlemen illegally ended up taking anything between Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 from the labourers in the name of filling up their forms. Moreover, the workers had to repeatedly go to the labor office on several days and spend hours in the queues which led them to lose their daily wages,” he said. Furthermore, after the application, the worker had to go to the labour office for verification and often had to take leaves from their work. To ease this process, the Delhi Government has started the doorstep delivery of registration and renewal of workers from Thursday.
Sisodia said that now with just a phone call, a member of the Delhi government will visit the worker’s house, fill their documents, in addition to uploading those documents and photos of the workers online. The worker has to pay Rs. 25 and a service charge of Rs 50.
Sisodia also said that a watchman at construction sites, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, fitters, welders, shuttering workers, pump operators, bar winders, and crane operators are also categorized as construction workers.
The registered workers can avail an amount of anything between Rs 35,000 to Rs. 51,000 for their child’s marriage. Some of the provisions, he talked about such as health benefits of 2000 to 10000 and maternity benefit of up to Rs 30000, monthly pension of Rs 3,000 for workers over the age of 60, compensation of two lakh in case of accidental death, one lakh in case of natural death, Rs 10,000 for covering the costs of funeral, and one lakh as disability cover. Additionally, monthly scholarships ranging from 500 to Rs 10,000 are also given for a worker’s child’s education.
“Until now, only 1,11,000 workers have been registered in Delhi even though Delhi has an estimate of 10 lakh construction workers working in the city,” he said.