Cess funds meant for betterment of construction workers are criminally unuderutilised: Abhijeet Rane Dhadak Kaamgar Union demands the state welfare board to be more active Mumbai: The cess paid by

Cess funds meant for betterment of construction workers are criminally unuderutilised: Abhijeet Rane

Dhadak Kaamgar Union demands the state welfare board to be more active

Mumbai: The cess paid by builders involved in construction activities, meant to be used for ensuring good amenities and welfare schemes for construction workers remains criminally unuderutilised, informed Abhijeet Rane of Dhadak Kaamgar Union. He also pointed out that despite crores of unutilised rupees collected by the state Cess funds meant for betterment of construction workers are criminally unuderutilised: Abhijeet Rane

Dhadak Kaamgar Union demands the state welfare board to be more active

Mumbai: The cess paid by builders involved in construction activities, meant to be used for ensuring good amenities and welfare schemes for construction workers remains criminally unuderutilised, informed Abhijeet Rane of Dhadak Kaamgar Union. He also pointed out that despite crores of unutilised rupees collected by the state welfare board, the workers battle with bad living conditions, low wages, insufficient safety measures and exploitation at the workplace.

The Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act, 2005 directs all builders engaged in any construction project to contribute 1% of the construction cost as cess on each project to the state welfare board board, which is to be utilised on the various welfare schemes to improve the lives of the workers. Rane informed that a reply to a recent RTI query revealed that across the country, more than Rs 70,000 crores (out of Rs 1,17,507 crores collected) remained unutilised in the accounts of the welfare boards till September 2024.

“Not only do the welfare boards hardly used the cess collected, there is wide scale evasion of the cess by the builders as well. This amounts to theft of the money meant for public good remaining in the government coffers, criminally unutilized,” said Rane. He added that the state government must ensure the welfare board takes its job seriously.

Construction workers live in unsanitary conditions, without access to clean drinking water or toilets with running water. The BOCW provisions state that the welfare board must ensure the living conditions of the workers are hospitable. The act also has a detailed section on safety precautions expected at every construction site. However, we see no measures by either employers or the welfare board, leading to thousands of preventable deaths each year. Devendra Fadnavis CMOMaharashtra BJP Maharashtra @highlight Narendra Modi PMO India Eknath Shinde - एकनाथ संभाजी शिंदे BJP Mumbai Ajit Pawar Devendra Fadnavis for Maharashtra Amit Shah Rajnath Singh Adv. Ashish Shelar - ॲड. आशिष शेलार Sunil Rane Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Mangal Prabhat Lodha Uddhav Thackeray Sharad Pawar Abhijeet Rane MyBmc Shivsena Communication