Labour Welfare: Supreme Court pulls up Maharashtra government for unused cess

"Unbelievable, that a city like Mumbai has only 14000 active registered construction workers," remarked the Supreme Court recently on being told by the Maharashtra government that only 10 per cent of the cess collected from building and construction activities in the state get utilized towards welfare schemes for the labour force.

Finding this figure to be alarmingly low, a bench of two judges — Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta — ordered Maharashtra government to gather data on the number of builders who are registered with the state government, number of labourers working for them in Mumbai, and whether such workers are registered on state records. The data has to be presented to the court on September 18.

While monitoring the implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules across the country, the apex court had stayed construction activity across Maharashtra. Almost 10 days ago, this order was vacated on an assurance by the state that solid waste management rules are already in place. It was then the Court wished to know whether the one per cent cess collected by the state under the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996 went to the labour force.

State counsel Nishant Katneshwarkar informed the court that the total labour workforce registered in Maharashtra, as on June 2018, was 1,83,760. Of this, Mumbai alone has a population of 14025 registered labourers. In Mumbai suburbs, the count is 9252 (east) and 13803 (west). As far as the cess collected from builders in the state was concerned, the state informed that a total of Rs 285.40 crore has been collected this year. Of this, only Rs 28.62 crore was utilized in welfare schemes meant for construction workers. In Mumbai city alone, only 3399 out of the 14000 odd labourers are beneficiaries under the welfare schemes.

The court was surprised to note that a huge percentage of cess meant for labourers is underutilized. This was on account of the low registration of labour workforce. The figures made available by the state government showed that in 2017-18, the total cess collected was Rs 1170 crore and the money spent on the welfare of labourers was a mere Rs 68.5 crore. In 2016-17, the expense on labour welfare accounted for Rs 14.7 crore out of 1069 crore cess amount. Every year a good amount is collected as cess which is a statutory condition to be fulfilled by any government or private contractor/builder prior to the grant of development permission by the state department.

The bench observed, "It is unbelievable that a city like Mumbai has only 14000 registered construction workers. We want to know the number of builders or contractors working in Mumbai and who are registered with you. Also, inform us about the sites they are constructing, the number of labourers employed, and the percentage of registered labourers among them."

ALARMINGLY LOW

• In 2017-18, the total cess collected was Rs 1170 crore and the money spent on the welfare of labourers was a mere Rs 68.5 crore 
   
• In 2016-17, the expense on labour welfare accounted for Rs 14.7 crore out of 1069 crore cess amount