Labour cess mess: HC summons board secretaries of Punjab and Haryana

Dissatisfied at the implementation of the schemes for labourers in their respective territories, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday summoned secretaries of construction welfare boards of Punjab and Haryana.

Dissatisfied at the implementation of the schemes for labourers in their respective territories, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday summoned secretaries of construction welfare boards of Punjab and Haryana.

The direction came from the division bench of justices SK Mittal and MS Chauhan during the hearing of a public interest litigation on the labour cess issue, collected from the construction companies by the states for the welfare activities of construction workers.

Haryana has a corpus of Rs 1,500 crore and Punjab so far has Rs 800 crore collected in the past decade, as per submissions made in the high court. However, the spending for the welfare activities is almost negligible.

The Haryana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board informed the court that it proposed an academy at a cost of Rs 100 crore under the national skill development mission, namely Haryana Academy for Construction with regional branches. It was also informed that Rs 10 crore is proposed to be spent on mobile creches and Rs 5 crore to provide solar lanterns.

The Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, on the other hand, informed the court that Rs 43 crore was proposed to be spent on various activities during the year.

However, the court rejected both the affidavits saying they should have been filed by senior officers, not by the joint secretary (of Haryana Board) and deputy secretary (of Punjab Board). The court posted the matter for further hearing on September 10 and directed the secretaries of the respective state boards to be present.