Gurugram officials to ascertain if workers received financial assistance, compile data

To ensure that financial assistance and other relief measures reach construction labourers and migrant workers, the Haryana government has asked the district administrations

To ensure that financial assistance and other relief measures reach construction labourers and migrant workers, the Haryana government has asked the district administrations and labour departments in the state to form local committees and reach out to them. The government directed that in case these workers have not received help, then labour officials should register them at the earliest with the Construction Labour Welfare Board. It has also asked the local authorities to compile district-wise data in this regard.

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Haryana chief secretary Keshni Anand Arora on Monday, while presiding over a meeting of the crisis coordination committee, said that as per the instructions of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the local-level committees and respective deputy commissioners (DCs) should contact the labourers, who gather at labour chowks in search of work and find out whether they are registered with the Construction Labour Welfare Board. “If not, they should be registered under the unorganised sector and local committees to ensure ration is distributed to them,” Arora said, adding that the local administration should also inquire from the labourers whether they have received the state’s financial assistance (ranging between ₹2,000 and ₹5,000) during the last two months of the pandemic.

Arora also asked the DCs to compile the data and upload the labourers’ latest mobile numbers on the portal of the labour department.

The directions issued by the state government assume significance because Gurugram is one of the largest real estate and construction hubs not only in the state but across the national capital region.

There were around 2.5 to 3 lakh construction workers in Gurugram before the lockdown, who worked on real estate projects. Of these, around 1.5 to 2 lakh have already left the city, local trade union leaders associated with the construction industry say.

The city has around 11 large labour chowks where labourers would gather in large numbers in the morning to look for various kinds of construction and other civic works, but now the number of workers gathering there post-lockdown has gone down considerably. The prominent labour chowks in the city are at Railway Road Chowk, Bhuteshwar Mandir Chowk, sector 21/22 Crossing, Hero Honda Chowk, Bhardwaj Chowk near Qadipur, Sikanderpur Metro Station, Sector 56/57, Wazirabad and South City 1.

“Around 1.5 to 2 lakh construction workers have already left for home as they did not have money to pay rent or buy essential items like food. I have not come across any worker who received financial help from the government. If they had got money, why would they leave?” Rajender Saroha, joint secretary, Bhawan Nirmaan Kamgar Union, said.

Saroha, however, said that government should compile the data and release the names of workers who have received financial or any other kind of assistance from the construction welfare board so everyone would come to know who received money, if at all. “This is an exercise on paper and will remain hidden in the government files. We will see how many workers are actually contacted by officials,” he said.

The district labour department, however, said that they are taking steps to help migrant workers. “We are taking several steps to help the labour and construction workers. Around 1.25 lakh workers are registered with the department and those eligible have been granted financial assistance of ₹5,000. The direct transfer of money takes place via a centralised system from Chandigarh,” Ravinder Malik, the deputy director, (IS&H) labour department, said.

Gurugram deputy commissioner Amit Khatri said that labour committees are already in place and have now been activated to get information from the workers in this regard. “We will soon have feedback on the assistance given to workers and efforts will be made to register those workers who are still not covered by the welfare board,” he added.

Additional labour commissioner Munish Sharma said that work on helping the labourers is going on and all steps are being taken to ensure that assistance reaches everyone.