The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State Welfare Board to explain whether arrangements of medical facilities had been made for registered construction workers and their dependents in case they contract COVID-19.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty issued the direction during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by former MLC Ramesh Babu.
The Bench noted that Section 22 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, facilitates the Board to grant financial assistance to registered workers to meet medical expenses for treatment of major ailments of a beneficiary or dependent.
The Bench also directed the Board to state what efforts had been made to ensure that building and construction labourers are registered as per provisions of the Act in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Additional Advocate General M. Dhyan Chinnappa pointed out that the Chief Minister had announced ₹5,000 as a one time COVID-19 relief to each registered construction worker and so far payment had been made through bank accounts to 12.39 lakh registered workers. Efforts were being made to identify the remaining.
Following this, the Bench asked the government to make all endeavour to pay ₹5,000 to the remaining around 9 lakh workers and inform the court abut the efforts made in this regard.
