SC slams misuse of construction workers welfare cess

The Supreme Court on Friday told the state governments not to collect cess under the statue for the welfare of the construction workers if they were misusing it for other purposes, instead of using it for its stated objective.

Taking exception to the manner in which the fund collected for the welfare of the construction workers was being misused for publicity and other administrative expenses, the social justice bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said that it would be better not to collect the cess and have the fund.

The court asked the central government to tell it on September 4 - the next date of hearing of the matter - the plan of action for the utilisation of the fund meant for the welfare of the workers in construction industry.

Describing it as "ridiculous" and a state of affairs which "can't go on", the court noted that Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have furnished all the information except its utilisation involving the welfare of the workers and their families' including their health and education.

The court had on July 31 sought information from these states on the use of cess collected under the the Building & Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996 and the 1998 rules by the central and state governments.

The court's indignation came on the non-utilisation of Rs.27,000 crore that have been collected under the law and related rules.

Noting that successive governments in Delhi over the years had spent Rs.2.7 crore from the fund for the publicity, the court ordered the Delhi government to put back the money into the corpus meant for the welfare of the workers.

A similar attempt to present a rosy picture claiming that a funds has benefitted "thousands of worker" was short-circuited as the court asked Uttar Pradesh counsel to name ten workers who were the beneficiaries of the fund.

The court asked Uttar Pradesh to provide the list of some of such beneficiaries along with their addresses in the next hearing on September 4.