Delhi Govt To Give Rs 10,000 Each To 1,825 Construction Workers As COVID Relief

The Delhi government granted a COVID relief of ₹ 10,000 each to 1,825 construction workers on Wednesday, June 23. The Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board announced the disbursement of relief fund for construction labourers, who are registered under the board as of September 2018, on the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, reported Times Of India.

The Delhi government already disbursed ₹5,000 each to 2,17,039 construction workers as COVID relief earlier this year.

Urges Workers To Register

"I urge all construction workers who were a member of the board before 30th September, 2018, to renew their membership with construction board so that they are able to receive disbursement benefits," said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also the labour minister, reported Hindustan Times.

Sisodia said that over 10,000 construction workers will receive the amount in the coming weeks. "When the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March 2020, the Delhi government was one of the first governments to grant COVID relief to all the 39,600 registered workers," said Sisodia.

He said that after taking the charge of labour department in November 2020, he had carried out several inspections and mass registration drives across Delhi due to which over 2 lakh workers were registered with the board in six months. Sisodia also said that as a part of registration process, the entire verification process has been shifted online. And because of this submitting procedure has become quicker and convenient for the workers.

Earlier, the Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI), the nodal body of the workers, had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to the chief ministers of all the states and Union Territories to help the construction workers during the lockdown period and provide them with a relief of ₹ 5,000 from the cess fund meant for construction workers' welfare in the country. The fund is called Building & Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess.

Interestingly, only states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala have complied with providing ₹ 5,000 as interim relief to the construction workers.

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