State diverting welfare money,labourers tell SC

Under a central law — the Building and Other Construction Workers Act,1996 — autonomous welfare boards for these labourers were to be set up in each state. These boards were to collect money from both labourers and developers to be used for schemes like maternity,health,pension and educational benefits of the labourers.

In Gujarat,the law was notified in 2004 with a number of modifications,one of them being the collection of cess by the finance department,which would then disburse it to the Board.

In the original Act,the cess is to be collected by an appointed government authority and transferred directly to the Board within a month without the need to enter the state exchequer first.

In 2005,the state’s Labour Department opened three accounts “in concurrence with the finance department” and the money was kept there.

Two years later,it passed another resolution saying the funds would be given to the board as grant-in-aid by the government.

The same resolution mentioned labourers would not be entitled to receive benefits from the Board if they have received similar benefits from other departments or government agencies.

“This is unfair. The money is paid by the labourers and the board is an autonomous body. But the state government has removed this autonomy through the grant-in-aid stipulation and consequently,labourers are not getting the benefits,” said Vipul Pandya of the Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan,the union that filed part of the affidavit.

The union’s affidavit is part of a nationwide affidavit filed before the Supreme Court by the National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour,a group chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Krishna Iyer.

Pandya pointed to a recent RTI reply he received that showed about two-fifth (almost 200 of about 500) labourers’ wards in four districts did not receive the amount they are supposed to get as educational scholarships,one of the benefits the Welfare Board is in charge of disbursing.

The RTI reply included data from districts with sizeable tribal (Vadodara and Panchmahals) and SC populations (Kheda and Anand),and Pandya said the discrepancies are possibly because of “dual” benefits,which ate into the scholarships.

Principal Secretary of the state’s Labour and Employment Department,Varesh Sinha,however,said the process of giving the board money as grant-in-aid and not directly avoids duplication.

“At the moment,that is the way it is. It is an administrative procedure the state is following,and it does not restrict the benefits the labourers are getting,” he said.

“On the other hand,it avoids duplication of benefits,” he added.