Childrens of construction workers without scholarships for last 3 yrs
The wards of building and construction workers who are registered with of J&K Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board have not received financial help for their education for the last three years.
It is learnt the maximum pending cases are from the Jammu district, where the cases related to financial aid in education for the years 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 are pending. The number of pending cases is up to six thousand, with the highest number of cases involving minor errors or non-submission of documents. The financial assistance for the education of children to the registered workers ranges from anywhere between Rs.1000 to Rs.25000.
As per sources it has come to the fore that the registered construction workers had applied for financial help from the JKBOCWWB. Despite applying, they have not received any financial help. This is mostly in cases where there is a minor mistake in the application.
As per a Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh office bearer, the applications for scholarships even with minor errors have been rejected. He said that most of the workers are illiterate and they do not have much knowledge. We have also written a letter to the Board and the Labor Commissioner in this regard, but no initiative has been taken so far.
Last year there were 65,512 new registrations in the Labor Welfare Board. In 2019, 1.76 lakh workers were registered with the board, which has increased to 3.25 lakh by 2022. Last year the board allocated Rs.1.70 crore under various assistance, including Rs.94 crore for the education assistance.
As per senior officer of J&K Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board- in 2019-2020, after sanctioning 6272 scholarship cases, Rs.4.5 crores have been released. In 2020-21, Rs.2.93 crore was released in 1824 cases. Only 1017 cases for 2021-22 are pending. Due to the vacancy of the chairman’s post in the board, these matters are pending, which will get approval soon.
A few months back then advisor to LG Farooq Khan had observed that registration of some labourers and workers was being delayed due to lack of certain documents. In this regard, he had directed that Aadhar Card be accepted as standalone proof of identity with date of birth certificate saying that no applicant be denied services on pretext of any other irrelevant document. He added that the department creates a central digital database of records and eliminates duplicate entries.
