Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) leader Angela Rangad wrote to the Labour Department, reminding it of the latter’s assurance that it would provide weekly updates on the commitments to providing financial aid to labourers.
The assurance came after Rangad had held a protest in front of the Secretariat calling for pending financial aid to be released to labourers and construction workers under Chief Minister’s Relief Against Wage Loss (CRAWL) and Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Welfare Board schemes.
In her letter, Rangad asked for a report indicating the number of transfers processed in the past week, number of phone calls received by the public on the helplines created for the schemes, and the reports from the banks on the status of transfers. She pointed out that several people have informed TUR that the helpline numbers are often unreachable or (being mobile phones) were switched off.
One of the reasons the government gave for not giving some construction workers their aid money was because there were instances where some had not paid the renewal fee of Rs 10 for BOCW membership. TUR had asked that this minimal fee be waived as the Covid pandemic had ruled out many being able to travel to the office to pay the fee. In this vein, Rangad attached a central government notification from last year urging states to register labourers on a “war footing” in order to provide support to them.
“We also urged you to use the BOCW funds to provide fresh income support for labourers for this year 2021. This support will go a long way in helping them not only ensure nutrition for their families but also that they keep their children in school especially now that results have been announced and there are financial requirements for admissions, etc,” Rangad said.
The department was also asked for the status of the physical verification at the district level of 32,283 people who had registered for the aid but have yet to receive any. Rangad also requested to know the status of the online portal on BOCW and CRAWL and how many verifications have taken place since July 28.
