NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will soon register over five lakh construction workers in the national capital to provide them monetary relief. This comes after the Delhi High Court ordered the AAP government to send SMS in Hindi to around 5,39,421 construction workers in the next four days, informing them about the proper verification process.
“This order will go a long way in helping the construction workers whose registration lapsed and were unable to renew them due to the lockdown. These daily wagers have no means of income left,” said Sunil Kumar Aledia who filed the PIL.
So far, Delhi government has spent `19.08 crore in providing financial assistance of `5,000 each to 39,600 registered constructions workers. However, in 2018, the total number of registered workers were 5,39,421. So, almost five lakh were unable to register before the lockdown.
“Delhi government will send SMS as per the directions of court in the next four days for proper verification process and transfer money into workers’ registered bank accounts,” informed Sanjay Ghose, who appeared for the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare (BOCWW) Board and Delhi government.
Recently, labour minister Gopal Rai launched an online portal for the purpose of verification of those construction workers whose registration had lapsed. According to Ghose, the portal get over 400 applications daily.
“It, thus, appears that only a fraction of the originally registered construction workers have been able to avail of the ex-gratia relief granted by the respondents, due to them not having renewed their registration,” the bench said in the order. “This is not a satisfactory state of affairs and the government is obliged to encourage the construction workers to renew their registration so that the intended benefit can reach them as well.”
Allow registration process to be in Hindi: HC
The court has also asked Delhi government to make the process of online renewal of registration of construction workers should be in English and Hindi. The Delhi High Court also ordered the AAP government to send SMS in Hindi language to around 5,39,421 construction workers in the next four days.