Times of India: Chennai: Sunday, 06 July 2014.
There seems to be little welfare on the agenda of
the Tamil Nadu Construction Workers Welfare Board list. According to it, no
worker has died or got injured at construction sites in Chennai since 2008, and it has not disbursed two-thirds of the fund it collected as cess. The
National Crime Records Bureau statistics, meanwhile, show that 17 people were killed in building collapses in Chennai in 2013.
In reply to an RTI application (given before the
Moulivakkam accident last Saturday), the construction workers welfare board
also shows that in 2011-12, the board collected Rs88.77 crore, but disbursed only Rs29.52 crore to workers. A total of 18.24 lakh construction workers are registered with the board. The Union labour
ministry statistics show that Tamil Nadu disbursed only Rs277.9 5 crore (46%) though it collected Rs604.31 crore as cess from builders as on September 30, 2013. In contrast, Kerala had
disbursed Rs 728.84 crore to the workers of the Rs 808.82crore collected as cess.
According to the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers
(Regulation of Employment and conditions of work) Act 1982, 1% of the estimated value of
the construction has to be collected as cess from builders and contractors
through civic bodies. The board was collecting 0.3% of the estimated value of
the construction as cess since July 1987, and it increased it to 1% from December 2013.
Asked about the number of workers who died and
those who got injured at construction sites in Chennai since 2008, the reply from the board was 'nil.' An official from the board said:
"There are no registered workers died in Chennai since 2008. The deaths reported in the sites could be migrant workers or unregistered
workers in the state".
It is also revealed that only Rs40,000 was allocated for Chennai to create awareness programmes among
construction workers. Activists say the answers are shocking as the board has
failed to maintain a data on deaths and injuries of construction workers.
Geetha Ramakrishnan, additional secretary of Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam
said the board's reply is a joke. "Several hundreds of people have died in
the past few years in Chennai. But the board is not taking these into account
as they are unregistered workers. Several families suffering compensation doesn't
reach them," she said.
C Srinivasan, general secretary of Tamil Nadu
Construction Workers' Union, Chennai South, said the board has done nothing to
create awareness to increase registration of workers. Ramakrishnan said
thousands of claims are pending before the board since 2008. "The board always cites
reasons to delay and deny compensation to workers. The amount collected as cess
has reached nearly Rs 1,000 crore after it is revised to 1%
in 2013
December," he said.
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