SC rebukes Delhi govt for not paying full allowance to construction workers

New Delhi, Dec 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Delhi government for not paying the full subsistence allowance to construction workers, who went without work due to the curbs imposed to combat air pollution in the national capital.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih quizzed Delhi chief secretary Dharmendra for paying only Rs 2,000 of the mandated Rs 8,000 to 90,693 construction workers and directed the remaining amount be released immediately.

"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 6000 to them?" the bench questioned the top bureaucrat.

The top court warned the official of initiating contempt action if its directions were not complied with.

The chief secretary, who appeared virtually, informed the bench that information from the labour department revealed the payment of Rs 2,000 to 90,693 construction workers registered in the portal, in order to provide them with immediate succour.

"Statute provides for verification and therefore, we will pay the remaining amount after proper verification of these workers," he suggested.

The submission of the chief secretary, however, did not cut much ice with the court, which said the remaining amount had to be released immediately.

The top court questioned the Delhi government on efforts being made to reach out to the construction workers for payment of subsistence allowance and said it couldn't believe there were only 90,000 workers in Delhi.

The bench therefore asked for the issuance of a public notice to the construction workers to make them aware of registration and payment of the subsistence allowance.

The Delhi government was directed to convene a meeting of the workers' union immediately to ensure their registration.

Similar directions were passed for Rajasthan, where two districts Bharatpur and Alwar, fall in the NCR, besides 14 districts of Haryana and eight districts of UP, to convene a meeting of workers' unions and pay the subsistence allowance.

On December 2, the top court directed the chief secretaries of NCR states to appear before it through video-conferencing to inform whether or not any subsistence allowance was paid to the construction workers who went without work owing to the restrictions. PTI MNL AMK