Times of India: Gurgaon:
Monday, 07 September 2015.
The Supreme has taken note of the state
governments not implementing welfare measures for labourers, particularly in
the construction industry, despite state labour departments charging 1% cess on
construction work, ostensibly to be spent on the welfare of laborers.
In Haryana, an RTI query by a city-based activist
has revealed that close to Rs 134 crore collected since 2013 by the Haryana
government lay virtually unused.
According to the information provided by the state
labour department to RTI activist Aseem Takyar (a copy is with TOI), for cess
collected between March 2013 and March 2015, the government has hardly made any
use of the Rs 133.87 crore it has collected from Gurgaon alone.
The data provided to Takyar earlier this year
shows, the Haryana government collected a total of Rs 59.23 crore in 2013-14
and Rs 74.64 crore in 2014-15 as cess on construction work in Gurgaon alone,
making a total collection of Rs 133.87 crore over the past two years.
However, the only expenditure on labour welfare in
Gurgaon was Rs 37.93 lakh, in 2013-14. This, according to the labour
department, was used for the 'Kanyadan benefit' scheme, death scheme and to procure
bicycles for labourers.
Across the state, the state government collected
Rs 227.27 crore as labour cess in 2013-14, but spent only Rs 25.54 crore on
welfare activities and schemes. The 2014-15 expenditure figures for both the
state and the city were not provided in the RTI reply.
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