The Centre on Tuesday asked all Chief Ministers to provide financial aid to millions of construction workers from the cess available with them amid Covid-19 outbreak. Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar issued an advisory to all the States and Union Territories asking them to provide succour to nearly 3.5 crore construction workers from Rs 52,000-crore construction cess under their disposal.
The decision followed a letter by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to roll out emergency welfare measures for the construction industry workers.
“Under Section 60 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act, 1996, all States/UTs have been advised to transfer funds in the account of construction workers through DBT (direct benefit transfer) mode from the cess fund collected by the Labour Welfare Boards under the BOCW cess Act,” Gangwar wrote to Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Generals.
The Minister has stated in the letter that in this challenging situation, it is imperative that we devise probable mechanism to support unorganised workers, who sustain their livelihood on daily wages.
The Minister also said that State building and construction workers welfare boards have collected sufficient funds. The cess has been levied and is being collected at 1 per cent of the cost of construction as notified by the Central Government in its official gazette.
The BOCW Welfare Cess, 1996, provides for levy and collection of cess at such rate not exceeding 2 per cent, but not less than 1 per cent of the cost of construction as the Central Government may notify.
Sonia pointed out to the Prime Minister that the construction industry employed over 44 million people, and the workers should be given wage support.
Over the last week, lakhs of migrant workers in major cities across India have left for their hometowns and villages, fearing a prolonged economic downturn.
As the second largest employer in India, over 44 million construction workers are now faced with a precarious future. Many are stranded in cities and are deprived of their livelihoods due to stringent lockdown measures,” Sonia said in her letter to the Prime Minister.
The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act 1996 provides for various welfare measures for workers. The Act also provides for State Welfare Board and the constitution of welfare funds. It is reported that the Welfare Boards collected Rs 49,688.07 crore till March 31, 2019. However, only an amount of Rs 1,93,79.922 crore had been spent,” she noted.
Pointing out that several countries, most notably Canada, have announced wage subsidy as part of its COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, the Congress chief said, “I request you to consider advising the State Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Boards to roll out emergency welfare measures, particularly wage support, to construction workers who are in distress”.
In separate letters to the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States, Sonia said the construction industry that was reeling under the impact of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) had been hit afresh by the pandemic.
“Given that a significant part of the cess lies unutilised, the State Welfare Boards may consider providing wage support to their registered beneficiaries... Keep me informed of the progress in this matter,” she told the Chief Ministers.