Relief eludes infected labourers, govt extends date to avail benefit

MOGA: Despite the availability of unspent funds exceeding ₹1,000 crore with the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, the labour department has failed to provide compensation to unprivileged labourers who tested positive for Covid. Not even a single labourer has got such benefit in the state so far.

The state government had announced compensation of ₹1,500 to registered labourers and up to ₹3,000 to a family. Ironically, no beneficiary has approached the department to get compensation as they are not aware of the scheme.

According to the labour department, there are around 3.76 lakh registered workers in Punjab. In January this year, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had announced this financial aid for unprivileged labourers registered with the board. However, no efforts have been made by the labour department to make beneficiaries aware of the compensation.

Initially, the last date of availing compensation was March 31 and later, the department has extended the date up to September 30. The purpose of the scheme is to provide financial assistance to labourers to run their household when they have to be isolated due to Covid-19.

A senior official of the department said, “Unfortunately, the beneficiaries, who were supposed to get benefit of the compensation, didn’t know about it. Consequently, they were not applying for it. The department needs to create awareness among labourers to extend the benefits.” The latest report of comptroller and auditor general of India released in March this year revealed that against the available cess collection of ₹1,715.03 crore, the board could utilise only ₹696.2 crore and unspent amount of ₹1.018.7 crore was lying with the board.

JP Singh, deputy labour commissioner, said, “We did not receive any application from beneficiaries to avail compensation after testing Covid positive.”Principal secretary of labour department, Vijay Kumar Janjua, said, “No of money has been released to labourers as compensation. We have extended the date for six more months for beneficiaries so they can avail this benefit.”