Kejriwal for action plan to extend welfare benefits to workers

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chairs a review meeting with the Labor Department in Delhi on Monday. | Photo Credit: ANI

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday expressed concerns regarding welfare schemes not reaching all construction workers and instructed the Labour Department to formulate an action plan to extend its benefits to each and every registered construction worker. 

Mr. Kejriwal made the observation after chairing a meeting with the Labour Department to review the functioning of the Delhi Building And Other Construction Workers Welfare Board on Monday.

He also expressed his displeasure with the Board’s inability to reach out to the city construction workers. He said that even though 13 lakh building and other construction workers are registered with the board, it has not developed any mechanism to verify their existence and reach out to them.

He also directed the officials to conduct a proper exercise along with the teams of the Revenue Department to verify the registered workers by June.

“If the department is extending the benefit of these schemes to barely 400-500 people in the name of applications for a scheme, then there is no point in running this department itself. The costs of the department would be higher than that of the welfare schemes. If the department has ₹3,000-₹4,000 crore lying with it, then it must extend the benefit of its schemes to all 13 lakh workers. There can be no compromise with the welfare of our workforce,” Mr. Kejriwal said. 

Mr. Kejriwal said that it was unjust for the department to give pensions to only 500 new beneficiaries when it can very well increase the number by verifying eligible workers. The CM directed officials to find out and submit the number of registered workers aged above 60 within one week so that the benefit of pension can be extended to them. 

Subsidised housing

Mr. Kejriwal also said that the government plans to provide subsidised housing for construction workers in Delhi and transit hostels to migrant workers working in Delhi through the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board. 

Under this plan, the government plans to allocate Low Income Group (LIG) flats to construction workers by bearing 75% of the costs while the beneficiary will only be liable to pay the remaining 25%. 

“The Chief Minister directed the board to meet officials of land-owning agencies like the DDA, the MCD, the DUSIB and the DSIIDC to chart out a plan as to how much land the government can get for this purpose,” an official statement said. 

Mr. Kejriwal asked officials to explore the possibilities of both getting constructed houses from these agencies as well as land on which the government can construct houses and hostels on its own.