NEW DELHI: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has instructed its building department to direct contractual firms to ensure the immediate registration of construction workers engaged at their project sites on the Delhi govt portal, enabling them to receive subsistence benefits.
“It was observed that with the implementation of GRAP-IV regulations and banning of construction activity, workers are unable to earn anything. We received a letter from the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare (DBOCWW) Board specifying that as per the Supreme Court’s directions the process for registration and renewal of construction workers on their website should be accelerated,” an MCD official said.
“Accordingly, we issued directions to all execution engineers in the building departments of 12 zones to contact the empanelled project contractors engaged in construction work, including our projects, and assist their workers in getting enrolled on the website at the earliest,” the official said.
As per the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, and the rules framed there under, any person between the age of 18-60 years who worked as a construction worker for 90 days in the preceding one year is eligible to be registered under the act and is entitled to get the benefits of various welfare schemes run by the board.
Last month, Supreme Court directed Delhi govt to provide immediate compensation to construction workers adversely affected by the implementation of GRAP-IV. The court ordered Delhi govt to pay a one-time financial aid of Rs 8,000 to the registered construction workers.
It also directed the chief secretary of Delhi to ensure that the remaining payments were made within a day. Besides, the NCR states were asked to convene a meeting with workers’ unions to get workers registered on the online portal so that they become eligible for the subsistence allowance.
Sunil Kumar Aledia, associated with an organisation working for unorganised and homeless workers in Delhi, stated that the drive was intensified as Delhi govt needed to submit a reply in the court. “We earlier visited various govt project sites in Delhi and found out that not even a single worker was enrolled on the welfare board website. This was despite the fact that a gazetted officer had the power to enrol a construction worker on the website,” he said.
As per the welfare board’s dashboard, the total number of renewal applications of construction workers received till Dec 19 were 727,501, of which 35,279 were rejected applications and three were cancelled certificates.
