NEW DELHI: After giving building and construction workers (BOC) a glimmer of hope with the draft notification about social benefits for them, the Labour Ministry in its amended draft has done away with the provision of pension. The ministry amended the draft after the Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned Labour Secretary Heeralal Samariya for not using the Rs 28,000 crore fund for the welfare of BOC workers. The apex court had also come down on the secretary for taking off the draft off its website.
The amended draft is more or less similar to the previous draft which provided a host of social benefits like housing allowance, fixed leaves, insurance and scholarship for children and pensions. However, the new draft has done away with the provision of pension. “The committee, which was drafting the policy, deliberated on the issue and found that it was not sustainable for states to give pensions to the workers. However, more deliberations are on and a final decision will be taken only after that,” a ministry official said. The previous draft had a provision of granting Rs 1,000 a month as pension to BOC workers.
On the issue of redrafting the policy, ministry officials said that the policy needed to be drafted again as the panel had come up with decisions which needed to be incorporated. “We understand that redrafting the policy is taking time. We also want BOC workers to avail benefits as early as possible but these changes are important and need to be incorporated,” the official added.
Activists, on the other hand, see red in the delay. “We were ecstatic that the policy was drafted. By removing the pension clause, the government is not helping the workers’ cause. Financial security after so-called ‘retirement’ is very important for workers. They should bring back the clause,” Alka Singh of Nirman, an NGO working for welfare of construction workers said.