NGT recommends Centre to give allowance to labourers hit by Delhi construction ban

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday recommended to the Centre that a stipend or compensation be given to daily-wage labourers who have become unemployed as a result of the ban on construction activities to bring down the severe pollution levels in Delhi. "Huge welfare funds are lying unused under Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act. Can there be some stipend when construction is stopped?" a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said.

All construction work has been banned and the date has been extended from November 5 till further orders. NGT also said daily-wage workers who depend on construction sites to make a living are worst sufferers of the ban as they have no jobs left. "We have been informed that construction activity has been banned. Once construction is stopped, people involved in manual labour suffer the most. They become unemployed," the bench said. The NGT was listening the issue of air pollution in Delhi-NCR.