Delhi government to register 10 lakh construction workers soon

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday took charge of the Labour department of Delhi government and set an ambitious target of registration of 10 lakh construction workers with the Labour Welfare Board in the coming months.

He asserted that every single construction worker in Delhi will be registered with the Board and the government will ease the registration process.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal effected change in his cabinet, relieving Sisodia’s predecessor Gopal Rai of the charge of the Labour department to enable him to focus on the Environment department amid rising air pollution levels in Delhi.

After taking over the additional charge, Sisodia held his first meeting with the Labour Board and officials of the department and directed them to remove bottlenecks that prevented construction workers from getting registered and verified.

“Construction workers are the city builders of our nation and it is our responsibility to serve them. In Delhi, not a single worker should be left unregistered,” he said.

Sisodia thanked the Chief Minister for entrusting him with responsibility of the important portfolio, and took stock of the ongoing works.

The Delhi Government will run a large-scale campaign to ensure 10 lakh construction workers are registered in the coming months. This will ensure that they can avail benefits in an orderly and timely fashion, he said.

He also said his priority was to ensure immediate verification of the pending 66,000 workers and put an efficient system in place for new registrations and verifications in the coming months.

Delhi Government provides various schemes and benefits under the Building and Other Constructions Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act. To avail these benefits, the workers have to get registered with the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

Currently, there are 52,000 members of the Board who are registered and verified. Another 66,000 are registered but their verification is pending, said an official statement.