A parliamentary panel has asked the Labour Ministry to prepare a list of States that are not spending the construction cess collected for labour welfare.

Expenditure was “almost nil as compared to the cess collected”, the Standing Committee on Labour, headed by Mr Hemananda Biswal, noted in its 25th report tabled in Parliament recently. It said this was despite the panel raising the issue in its 19th report in September 2011.

Till September 30, 2011, Rs 5,609.3 crore had been collected as cess, of which only Rs 770.586 crore had been spent. The two States that collected the highest amount of cess were Karnataka and Delhi. Karnataka collected Rs 929.16 crore, but spent only Rs 9.26 crore. Delhi collected Rs 656.29 crore, but spent only Rs 28.36 crore, the Labour Minister said in Parliament recently in a written reply.

A one per cent cess is levied on the cost of construction incurred by employers to create a fund for workers in case of accidents, old age pension, loans and medical expenses.

While there are an estimated six crore construction workers in India, only 7,549,222 crore were registered till September 2011.

According to the Act, the cess collected by the States is to be used for the workers by the State Welfare Boards.

According to the Labour Minister, 33 of the 35 States and Union Territories had notified rules under the Act and had constituted Welfare Boards, 32 had notified implementing/cess collecting authorities and 28 had constituted State Advisory Committees.

But, according to a labour activist, even in States where Welfare Boards have been formed, most of the workers are not registered as they are migrants and keep moving. He said compulsory registration of all construction workers was the only way out.

>aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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