Comments
The government has come down heavily on the States for failing to utilise the cess collected for the welfare of workers engaged in building and construction industry.
“The State governments have collected about Rs 5,609 crore as cess and of this only Rs 770 crore have been spent on the welfare schemes meant for the workers,” the Union Minister for Labour & Employment, Mr Mallikarjuna Kharge, said at a national convention on India National Building Construction Forest and Wood Workers Federation.
Citing the latest NSSO survey, he said there are over 2.57 crore workers engaged in the building and construction related works, of which only about 75 lakh workers have been registered so far.
He provided the example of Gujarat, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi who have fared poorly in spending the cess collected, observing that “there is a lack of commitment” to extend benefit to the working class.
“It is the need of hour that proper awareness on the rights of building and construction workers be generated and steps be taken to protect their just demands,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.