“Modi government does not know how many migrant workers died or how many people lost their jobs during the lockdown,” he tweeted in Hindi.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi left to go abroad last week for the Congress chief’s health check-up. They will not attend the first part of the monsoon session of parliament. However, Mr Gandhi continues to attack the centre in his daily tweets.

You didn’t count so what, nobody died? Yes, but it is unfortunate that there was no impact on the government. The world saw them dying but the Modi government remained clueless,” Gandhi added.

In reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha, minister of state (MoS) for labour and employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar had said that the government did not have any record of deaths of migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. “No such data was maintained,” the minister had said in the written reply.

In reply to another question, Gangwar had said the government did not have any assessment of job losses of migrant labourers during the viral outbreak.

When asked “whether the government has provided any compensation/economic assistance to victims’ families,” the government had said, “the question does not arise”, since it had no records in the first place.

However, on the total number of migrants who had returned to their home states, the minister presented state-wise data and said, “More than 630,7000 migrants shifted to various destinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. While 4611 Shramik Special Trains were run to ferry the migrant returnees.”

According to an estimate, 122 million people have lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. Around 75% of these were small traders and daily-wage labourers.

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During the challenging times of COVID-19 lockdown, Ministry of Labour & Employment, which is the Nodal Central Ministry to coordinate with all the State Governments and State Welfare Boards in the matter of welfare of the construction workers, has left no stone unturned in ensuring timely cash transfers to them, when they needed it the most.

The building and other construction workers (BOCW) are the most vulnerable segment of the unorganized sector workers in India. They work under aggravating conditions with uncertain future. A large chunk of them are migrant labourers working in different states far away from their native places. They play a significant role in nation-building yet find themselves on the margins of the society.

The Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996 was enacted to regulate the employment and conditions of service of these workers and to provide for their safety, health and welfare measures. The Act along-with the Cess Act has played a significant role in coming to the rescue of construction workers by providing them subsistence during the tough times of pandemic. Under the Act, the State Governments through their State Welfare Boards are mandated to frame and implement welfare schemes for construction workers. The fund comprises the Cess @1% of construction costs which is levied and collected by the State Governments and remitted to the Welfare Fund.

A timely advisory was sent to all the Chief Ministers on 24th March, 2020 by the Union Minister of Labour and Employment, advising the States to frame a scheme under section 22 (1) (h) of the Act, for transfer of adequate funds in the bank accounts of construction workers through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode. The amount to be granted to the construction workers was to be decided by the respective State Governments necessary for their subsistence. The advisory was issued to help mitigate the financial crisis faced by construction workers. A similar letter was also written by the Secretary of Labour & Employment to the Chief Secretaries of all the States and vigorously followed through Video Conferencing from time to time.

There are some Building and Other Construction Workers, who are still out of the range due to reasons such as their migratory nature, changing work-sites, low levels of literacy and awareness. In order to address the issue, the Union Ministry has planned to launch a Mission Mode Project to fast track the registration of the left-out Workers, portability of benefits, universalisation of social security schemes on health insurance through Pradhaan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PM -JAY ), life & disability cover through Pradhaan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojna (PMJJBY) & Pradhaan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojna (PMSBY), life-long pension during old age through Pradhaan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan Yojna (PM-SYM) and provision of transit accommodations in large cities.

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Over the past two months, the veteran actor has been distributing food kits among the needy in Mumbai. Recently, he arranged the transport of over 200 people stuck in the city. Mr Bachchan chartered three flights to take over 500 migrant workers to their hometown Varanasi.

A source revealed, “Everything is being done with utmost discretion as Bachchanji doesn’t want it to be publicised. He was moved by the plight of the migrant workers and decided to help them. He has chartered the Indigo Airlines’ Varanasi-bound flight that is scheduled to depart on Wednesday morning. The 180 migrants scheduled to travel on the morning flight have been asked to report to the airport at 6 am. The initial plan was to send them home by train, but the logistics didn’t work out.”

Two more chartered aircrafts were scheduled for later in the day. As part of the endeavour, in the coming days, the actor will also arrange air tickets for those headed to West Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and other states.

It was previously reported that a week back, Bachchan had also arranged for 10 buses to help migrants reach their native places in Uttar Pradesh, the state that the actor hails from. In addition to this, since the coronavirus lockdown, he has also supported the families of 1,00,000 daily wage workers belonging to the All India Film Employees Confederation by sponsoring their monthly ration.

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A sum of Rs. 31,493 crore has already been released in 2020-2021, which is more than 50% of the budget estimate of the current Financial Year.

A total of 60.80 crore person days has been generated so far and work has been offered to 6.69 crore persons. Average number of persons to whom work offered in May 2020 has been 2.51 crore per day, which is 73% higher than the work offered in May last year, which was 1.45 crore persons per day.

A total of 10 lakh works have been completed so far during the current Financial Year 2020-2021. A sustained focus is on taking up works related to water conservation and irrigation, plantation, horticulture and Individual Beneficiary works for livelihood promotion.

Meanwhile govt said There has been an encouragingly positive response from the States asthe government continues its efforts to help the poor and marginalized people find their feet in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the context of tribal people, TRIFED under the aegis of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had advised the State Governments to plan the effective implementation of MSP for MFP by leveraging funds under Article 275 (I) grants to ensure both immediate income generation in the short term and sustained livelihoods by supporting VanDhan value addition activities.

It has been observed that this advice has been met with tremendous positive response. 17 states have initiated procurement and MFP worth approximately Rs. 50 Cr. have been procured by the states under the scheme. Moreover due to these efforts,private agencies in 7 States have procured MFP at prices above the MSP to tune of over Rs.400 Cr.

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“The road accident in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya is extremely tragic. The government is involved in the relief work. I express my condolences to the families of those killed in this accident, as well as wish the injured a speedy recovery,” PM Modi tweeted in Hindi.

Two trucks collided in Auraiya district at around 3 am, killing 24 migrant workers and injuring at least 38.

Among those injured, 15 are critical. Separate groups of labourers – stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown – had hitched rides on these trucks coming from Rajasthan and Delhi to return to their homes.

Many of them were sitting on sacks of goods that one of the vehicles was transporting. Some of the them were thrown off the vehicle, others were crushed under the weight of these sacks due to the impact of the collision. The migrants were headed to their homes in Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and UP.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted in Hindi: “The death of migrant workers in a road accident in Auraiya district is unfortunate and sad. My condolences to the bereaved families.

Instructions have been given to ensure relief and medical treatment for those injured. A probe has also been ordered.” He had appealed to the migrants yesterday to avoid travelling on their own.

Two police officers have been suspended over the incident and both the trucks have been seized. The UP Police has also filed cases against the truck drivers. A compensation of Rs 2 lakh has been announced by the state for the families of those who died and Rs 50,000 for those injured.

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