Covid-19: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand yet to transfer cash to workers

Over 18 million construction workers have benefited from cash transfers by states during the Covid-19 pandemic after the Central government issued directions for utilising the Building and Other Construction Workers Cess Fund. So far, states have transferred around Rs 5,000 crore, which is merely 16 per cent of the total cess funds of Rs 31,000 crore accumulated through the collection of cess from employers.

States such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand have so far not done any cash transfer for over 4 million construction workers registered with them, while the highest amount of cash has been given by Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

The government on Tuesday admitted that many construction workers were still left out due to various reasons and it was launching a drive to register them.