A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was apprised by Secretary of Ministry of Labour and Employment, who appeared before it following an earlier order, that a national portal for the benefit of construction workers was being set up which could be used by NGOs for this purpose.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO, National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour, alleging that the statutory cess levied on real estate firms for the welfare of construction workers was not being utilised properly as there was no mechanism to identify the beneficiaries for extending the benefits.
M Sathiyavathy, Secretary with Ministry of Labour and Employment, told the court that she will call a meeting of the Monitoring Committee, comprising the labour secretaries of all states and union territories, within a month.
The bench also asked senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, counsel for the petitioner NGO and advocate Anitha Shenoy, counsel for National Legal Services Authority, to attend the Monitoring Committee meeting.
Also Read
Sathiyavathy told the court that a Monitoring Committee was set up in 2015 for effective implementation of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.
The Secretary also said that the number of construction workers registered has increased to about 2.8 crore from the earlier 2.15 crore.
"The collection of cess under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 has increased from about Rs 25,477 crore to about Rs 37,482 crore," Sathiyavathy told the court.
Asserting that there should be no further exploitation of construction workers by the states or welfare boards, the top court observed that the CAG has revealed a "shocking state of affairs" with regard to the utilisation of the cess collected under the Act.
The court noted that laptops and washing machines were bought out of a whopping Rs 29,000 crore fund meant for the welfare of construction workers and less than ten per cent spent on the actual purpose.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content