
BENGALURU: Quashing a notification issued by the state government reducing the amount provided for educational assistance to children of construction workers, the Karnataka High Court directed the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board to consider the applications of petitioner-students and similarly situated applicants.
It advised the board not to drive every person to knock on the doors of the court seeking identical relief, and said the state can bear the brunt of litigation, but not the poor citizen.
It noted that the state government should stop treating the funds that belonged to construction workers and their children as the property of the Board for bartering away for wasteful expenditure. It also directed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to take up, if not already done, and complete the audit of the funds of the Board within three months and place the report before the court.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petition filed by two students of construction workers, Amrutha M, studying Master of Business Administration, and Ankitha H, a student of law, and Karnataka State Building and Other Workers Federation, questioning the October 30, 2023 notification issued by the state government to reduce the educational assistance.
The state government and Board should disburse educational assistance to the applications received for financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 till the completion of students’ education, said the judge, adding that the notification dated August 13, 2021, would prevail.
“The rights of construction workers cannot be railroaded in broad daylight by the state government, or the authorities like the Board. The core issue revolves around the education of two girl children of construction workers. Therefore, before I say omega, I wish to observe that the State must remember that it should take all steps towards educating women, as it is said, educating a man is educating an individual; educating a woman is educating a generation,” he observed.
On the Board’s contention that it has financial constraints, the court said such projections are preposterous, to say the least, as crores of rupees are not spent elsewhere. There is no accounting of the interest earned on deposits close to Rs 7,000 crore, the court added.
According to the notification issued on August 13, 2021, the children of construction workers are entitled to educational assistance of Rs 35,000 per semester. This was amended and the impugned notification dated October 30, 2023 was issued reducing the amount to Rs 10,000 from Rs 30,000 and Rs 35,000 for graduation or post-graduation. The petitioner-students moved the court as their applications for educational assistance was turned down by the state government.