Apex court pulls up Delhi Chief Secy for not paying full allowance to workers

The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up the Delhi Government for not paying the full subsistence allowance to construction workers who remained without work due to a ban on construction activities in view of GRAP-IV restrictions to deal with air pollution in the National Capital Region.

“You want the construction workers to starve? Is this not a welfare state? If you can pay Rs 2,000 to 90,693 workers, then why can’t you pay the remaining Rs 6,000 to them?” a Bench led by Justice AS Oka asked the Delhi Chief Secretary.

The Bench, which also included Justice AG Masih, directed him to release the remaining amount to the workers immediately.

It also asked the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to hold a meeting with the workers’ unions to get workers registered on a portal to make them eligible to receive subsistence allowance when they didn’t work due to ban on construction activities in view of GRAP-IV restrictions.

On Monday, the Bench had directed the chief secretaries of the NCR states to appear virtually over their failure to pay subsistence allowance to labourers who remained unemployed due to GRAP-IV curbs that included ban on construction activities.

As the Delhi Chief Secretary sought 10 days to make the payment, Justice Oka asked, “Why? When will you pay the balance amount? They are verified that is why they were paid Rs 2,000. You want the workers to starve? We are straightaway issuing contempt notice to you, this is not done. This is a welfare state.”

As the Bench wondered if there were only 90,000 workers in Delhi, the Chief Secretary pointed out that this was the number of registered workers. One of the parties said there were 12 lakh workers but their registrations stood lapsed.

In 14 affected districts of Haryana, 1.06 lakh of the 2.57 lakh registered workers were paid at the rate of Rs 423 per day, the top court was informed.

The Rajasthan Government submitted that in two districts affected by GRAP-IV restrictions, 2,063 of the 3,526 workers received a total of Rs 76 lakh. The Bench asked the state government to furnish details as to the amount paid to each worker.

In eight affected districts of Uttar Pradesh, only 8,000 of 4.88 lakh workers registered on the portal were paid. The Bench directed the UP Government to ensure that all eligible workers released money immediately.