Gujarat move to replicate Amma canteen for construction workers opposed: Plea to utilize funds for welfare

By A Representative
Closely following the Amma canteens of Tamil Nadu and Annapurna Rasoi of Rajasthan, the Gujarat government’s populist decision to provide meal at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 10 to an estimated 50,000 construction workers across the state appears have few takers among social organizations working among them.
Announced in the 2017-18 budget, the state government proposes to hand over the kitchen for providing meal to a charity organization at chosen 88 spots, where construction workers seek jobs every day in the state’s urban areas. In all, it is estimated, it would cost state coffers Rs 70 crore in a year.
Opposing the move, Vipul Pandya, general secretary, Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan (BMS), which has branches spread out in all major cities, in a letter to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said that the workers wanting to have meal would face the “unnecessary hassle standing in queue every day”, which would “hurt their self-respect and dignity.”
Subsidized meal at Amma canteens is said to be a major reason why late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa managed to remain popular in elections. Taking the cue, ruling parties of several states, including West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, introduced a similar scheme.
The letter, written following a meeting of senior activists working among construction workers, says that such a scheme would become an “unnecessary drain on the exchequer of the Gujarat Construction Workers Welfare Board (GCWWB), which is supposed to fund for the scheme.”
“Instead”, the letter insists, “It would be more proper to provide workers with unemployment allowance of Rs 1,200 per month, especially during the monsoon season, when they are jobless, from GCWWB funds.”
“In fact”, states Pandya, “Even today, several charity organizations provide free meal at different spots, hence where is the need to spend money on providing subsidized meal is difficult to understand.”
Pandya says, the decision to hand over money from from GCWWB coffers has “little meaning”, as whatever funds the government body collects as cess for GCWWB from builders is “not utilized for the welfare of the construction workers.”
“The cess is collected at the rate of 1% of Rs 3,000 per square metre of buildup area, and according to our estimate, the GCWWB has already collected Rs 1,600 crore, which is lying unutilized”, says Pandya.
According to Pandya, “It is difficult to understand why the GCWWB continue to collect cess on the basis of a government resolution (GR) of 2006, instead of a 2012 GR, which says that the collection should be 1% of the construction cost involved per square metre.”
“Already”, says Pandya, “The GCWWB has lost an estimated Rs 2,500 crore for failing collect cess under the new formula”, adding, “The GCWWB fund should be collected under the new GR, and it should be utilized in providing interest free loan of up to Rs 2 lakh to buy up equipment used while doing construction work.”
“Also”, says Pandya, “The amount should be utilized in providing a subsidy of Rs 1,60,000 for the construction workers wanting to own a house, whether in city or in rural areas.”
He added, “The amount could also be used for providing pension of Rs 2,000 the construction workers, who cross 55 years of age, because they are unable to get employment in the industry thereafter.”

Comments

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram* In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

The 'glass cliff' at Galgotias: How a university’s AI crisis became a gendered blame game

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan* “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.” These were the words used in the official press release by Galgotias University following the controversy at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The statement came across as defensive, petty, and deeply insensitive.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

Activists warn of gendered impact of VB-GRAMG Act, seek return to MGNREGA framework

By A Representative The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), along with the Agrarian Alliance and Workers’ Forum of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has written to President Droupadi Murmu urging her to call upon Parliament to repeal the newly enacted Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-GRAMG Act) and restore and strengthen the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Stray dogs, an epsilon (ϵ) problem: Of child labour, and the art of misplaced priorities

By Bhaskaran Raman The Greek alphabet ϵ (epsilon) is used in maths and science to denote a quantity which is not zero, but extremely small *** Since the Supreme Court's interim order on the issue of stray dogs came out on 07 Nov 2025, there have been a range of opinion pieces speaking for the voiceless. Most of them take the stance that there is a "problem" with stray dogs, but that we need a humane solution. I agree with this broadly, but I think we need new terminology to talk about this.

Search This Blog