Delhi Govt To Provide Affordable Housing to Construction Laborers on Subsidies

On Monday, the Delhi Government announced housing for construction workers on subsidised prices and transit hostels for migrant labourers working in the National Capital.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed his concerns in a meeting with the Labour Department over the fact that benefits meant for the workers are not reaching their goal and directed the department to formulate an action plan to extend the benefit of all welfare schemes to every registered construction worker.

He has also directed the Labour Department to offer free bus passes and group life insurance along with the verification of all 13 lakh registered workers.

Kejriwal chaired a high-level meeting with the Labour Department to review the functioning of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board. Also, the meeting was attended by Delhi Labour Minister Raaj Kumar Anand and senior officials of the departments concerned.

The meeting came as a follow-up to a recently-held review meeting during which the CM had instructed the board officials to formulate an action plan to use at least 25 per cent of its funds on workers’ welfare this year.

During the meeting, officials briefed the CM about the working of the board and presented details of various measures undertaken by the board to facilitate and benefit registered construction workers of Delhi in view of the said plan.

During the meeting, the CM also discussed the progress of the present schemes of the board.

And, directed the officials to conduct a proper exercise along with the teams of the revenue department to verify its registrations by June this year.

Observing the holistic data of registered beneficiaries under the department’s existing schemes, the CM noticed that the department needs to reach out to the citizens in a more effective manner.

The CM further directed the officials to quickly work on an action plan to execute such an awareness campaign.

During the previous review meeting of the board, Kejriwal directed the officials to explore the feasibility of providing group life insurance and free bus passes to all registered workers in Delhi.

The CM directed the board while reviewing the progress of these projects, to meet with DTC officials and group life insurance companies to chart out the costs of executing the said scheme at the earliest.

Under this plan, the government will dispense LIG flats to construction workers, by bearing 75 per cent of the costs, while the beneficiary will only be liable to pay the remaining 25 per cent.

During this discussion, the officials informed the CM that land allocated for the government’s Co-Working Spaces (CWS) can be utilized for this purpose after redevelopment.

Lastly, the CM approved a proposal to extend ESI Scheme cover to all registered workers of Delhi. The members of ESI get several benefits like unemployment allowances, maternity benefits, disability benefits, medical benefits, sickness benefits, and pensions.

Under the scheme, the Employer contributes 3.25 per cent and the Employee contributes 0.75 per cent of the wage towards the fund.

Kejriwal has been closely assessing all welfare schemes of the government himself. After having chaired a review of the workers’ welfare board on April 12, the CM again reviewed its work yesterday.