NOIDA: A special registration and renewal camp for construction workers under the Uttar Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act is being organised in Uttar Pradesh’s GB Nagar district by the labour department, officials said on Wednesday.
According to assistant labour commissioner (ALC), Noida, Subhash Chandra Yadav, currently, 15,102 active workers are registered in the district, receiving a weekly subsistence allowance of Rs 1,000 per week under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage 4 restrictions.
“There are 15,102 construction workers whose Aadhaar cards are registered with the labour department. The subsistence amount is deposited directly into their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode,” Yadav said.
Workers aged 18 to 60 involved in construction-related processes can register through Jan Seva Kendras or the portal www(dot)upbocw(dot)in to access welfare schemes.
“From Tuesday, the registration camps are also being held by the department at construction sites in the city so that more registrations can take place,” he said.
GRAP 4 was imposed in NCR on Nov 18 and lifted on Dec 5.
The workers will be paid the subsistence amount for two weeks, officials informed.
On Dec 5, the Supreme Court directed that workers impacted by the ban should be compensated promptly to prevent undue hardship.
The court directed the NCR states — Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana — to convene a meeting with all workers’ unions and appeal to them to get the workers registered on the online portal (www(dot)upbocw(dot)in) so that they become eligible to receive the subsistence allowance paid during the period when they remain unemployed due to the ban on construction activities.
As per official estimates, the total number of construction workers in the district is between 2.75 lakh and 3 lakh.
However, only 15,102 workers are Aadhaar card-authenticated with the department.
“This year, only those workers will get the subsistence amount who were already registered with the department before Nov 18. Hence, camps are being held to register new workers as well so that they can avail the benefits of govt schemes,” the officer said.
Senior officials attribute the low number of registrations of construction workers to many of them being migrants who stay in the city for a few months and leave for their hometown for the remaining year.
Due to this they do not show interest in getting registered, as proof of working at a construction site for 90 days at a stretch is required to get registered.
The department is now conducting camps at construction sites to get more workers registered as well as renew the registrations of those whose validity of one year is over.
“The camps have been held since Tuesday and will go on for the next one week. While there is no specific target for registration, the department aims to register as many construction workers as possible,” the ALC said.
Real estate representatives urged the administration to collaborate with developers to hold the registration camps.
“The initiative will ensure that the construction workers continue to receive allowances during periods when measures like GRAP are implemented, preventing their migration. Developers should be integrated into this registration process so they can register the workers coming to their sites. This initiative will benefit both the workers and the real estate sector,” secretary of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), NCR, Gaurav Gupta said.
The camps are being organised at Stellar Site Sector-01, Greater Noida, Eldeco Sector-150, Noida, Labor Adda Sector-15, Noida, Sector-72, Noida, Sector-94, Noida, Yamuna Authority Area Jewar, Harola Sector-5 Noida, Everycounty Sector-115 Noida, Khoda Colony Labor Check, Site Sector-142, Noida, Sector-140 Noida, Sector-01 Greater Noida West, Labor Check Jalpur, DeltaOne Greater Noida, Sector-62 Noida, Labor Adda Barola, Site Phase 2 Plot No 34 and 38 Noida, etc.
