What might come as a relief for 12 lakh construction workers in Maharashtra, on Friday, the state government announced financial aid to help them tide over this crisis. The announcement was made by Maharashtra Labour Minister Dilip Walse Patil. The aid includes a payment of Rs 2000.
On April 17, The Free Press Journal broke the news that 12 lakh construction workers will be getting Rs 2,000 each from Labour Welfare Fund.
The amount will directly be credited in construction workers bank account via direct bank transfer facility. Earlier, the government had proposed paying Rs 5000 in two instalments to the workers. But, later the proposal was revised and now the state has decided to Rs 2000. The money will be made available from the Labour Welfare Fund which has a corpus of Rs 9,000 crore.
Government’s move comes close on the heels of revised lockdown guidelines, which allows recommencement of construction activities that were on hold due to the nationwide lockdown.
On Friday, the Maharashtra government issued an additional list of activities that will be permitted after April 20 to mitigate hardship caused by the lockdown. From April 20 construction of roads, buildings and all kinds of industrial projects, renewable energy projects and all urgent pre-monsoon related work can also resume.
Other activities which will resume activities from April 20 include operations of coconut, cashew and spice plantations, operation of animal husbandry farms, bank branches, ATMs, e-commerce companies, etc.
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