Building workers: 20 of 877 Gujarat deaths compensated since 2008; Rs 150 crore of Rs 1,900 crore spent on welfare

By Our Representative
Even as Gujarat government has begun paying, following a Supreme Court order, Rs 10 lakh compensation each for the death of 170 workers because of suffocation in manholes, thanks to a long-drawn-out battle by people's organizations, facts have come to light suggesting that it is showing high degree of indifference in this regard for the accidental death of 877 construction workers.
A Bandkam Majur Sangh (BMS)-sponsored seminar, in which construction workers' representatives, government officials, and executives from top building construction companies, such as L&T and IL&FS, has been told that for just 20 out of 877 deaths since 2008 compensation has been paid.
Quoting from a Right to Information (RTI) reply, BMS' Vipul Pandya told the seminar, "According to the rule, the state government should pay Rs 3 lakh as compensation to those who are are registered as workers with the State Construction Workers' Welfare Board."
The workers were not being paid compensation, it was revealed, despite the fact that the welfare board has a huge Rs 1,900 crore at its disposal, collected at the rate of Rs 30 per square metre from the construction sector for the welfare of workers. Collected since 2006, so far the state government, ironically, has so far spent a paltry Rs 150 crore for the workers' welfare.
If health facilities are claimed to have been offered to construction workers for free, some of the 27 schemes at the disposal of the welfare board have simply not taken off. For instance, Some one of the schemes is Rs 1,000 pension to workers after 60 years of age, for which they must be found to have registered continuously for the last three years. A senior official at the seminar admitted, "Not one application has come..."

Total number of deaths of construction workers
since 2008: 877

"As for those who are are not registered, they should be paid Rs 1.5 lakh", Pandya said. Pointing out that only 30% of the construction workers out of 12 lakh are registered, Pandya said, "None of the those who died and aren't registered have been paid any compensation." According to the rule, each worker must renew registration every year, otherwise her or his registration would lapse."
Identifying "major problems" while registering construction workers, majority of whom are tribal migrants from Gujarat as well as places as far away as Bihar and West Bengal, senior board official IG Soni triggered hornet's nest, saying that "fake registration" has been taking place to take advantage of its 27 welfare schemes, one reason why one has to be "extra-careful."
Giving the example of registration of migrants who work in Surat's diamond industry, Soni said, "We were in the process of registering about 1,500 of them. And suddenly we found that there were 150 Rohingiyas among them, hence stopped registration." Asked how did he come to know that they were Rohingiyas, Soni said, "They didn't know either Gujarati or Hindi. They did not have any aadhaar card either."
Asked whether he thought that some of those present in the seminar but did not have aadhaar could be called Rohingiyas, a worked up Soni said, "Did I say that? I am not accusing anyone here." Amidst uproar, a migrant workers' representative called Soni's statement "highly objectionable and directed against a particular community." In Gujarat -- unlike other states -- aadhaar is a must for registration with the board.

Govt official Soni

According to a Government of India estimate, there are around 40,000 Rohingiyas in India. Victims of ethnic violence in Burma, Rohingiyas are mostly Muslims. Majority of them, living in sub-human conditions, have crossed over from Burma and reached Bangladesh by boat. Some of them reached India. Victims of humanitarian crisis, the Government of India wants them to be deported to Bangladesh.
Giving more details, Pandya said, last year 80 persons died while working on construction sites. Majority of them, 28, were from Ahmedabad. "These construction workers are underpaid. Even those working in Ahmedabad metro work for 12 to 15 hours to earn full day's wage, which is a safety issue. Most of them die because of falling from a height."
Pointing out that these migrants have "no space to live, no toilets, no water, no creche where women workers can put their children while going on work", Pandya said, "About 40% of those who die are tribal migrants." A top consultant for the metro, FM Dahodwala, responsible for safety issues, admitted, the government's special purpose vehicle set up for constructing metro in Ahmedabad, MEGA, has, in all, 1,500 workers, but of these "only 10% are registered with the welfare board."

Comments

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

Refugees as criminals? US govt report blames Amit Shah for calling Bangladeshis termites

Counterview Desk
The chapter “Freedom of Movement” of the US State Department’s “India 2018 Human Rights Report”, released recently, has criticized BJP chief Amit Shah for terming alleged Bangladeshis who may be in Assam as “termites”, because their names were struck down from the list of National Register of Citizens, under preparation in the state.
Pointing out that four million residents were excluded from Assam’s final draft list, leading to “uncertainty over the status of these individuals, many of whose families had lived in the state for several generations”, the report regrets, the Indian law does not even contain the term “refugee,” treating refugees like Rohingiyas as “any other foreigners.”
“Undocumented physical presence in the country is a criminal offense. Persons without documentation were vulnerable to forced returns and abuse”, the report says.
Text of the Freedom of Movement chapter: The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, a…

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

India, Pakistan told to eliminate nuclear weapons: N-war "would kill" 2 billion

Counterview Desk
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 64 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens, claiming to share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation, has warned that “an unprecedented global catastrophe” awaits the globe against the backdrop of warmongering in India and Pakistan.

Counterview

Search This Blog