HC dismisses contempt plea against govt on welfare of unorganised workers

HC dismisses contempt plea against govt on welfare of unorganised workers

SRINAGAR: The J&K High Court on Friday disposed of a contempt plea arising out of the issue of workers of the unorganised sector after the government told the court that required steps are being taken to mitigate the grievances of the workers for their social security benefits.
The court of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sanjay Dhar took the status report filed by Advocate General DC Raina on record wherein it was stated that effective steps in registering the workers of the unorganised sectors in Jammu and Kashmir are underway and a dedicated portal is being made available.
“In accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court, the Director General Labour
Welfare has informed that Ministry of Labour & Employment has developed a registration module for creating a comprehensive National Data base for unorganized workers and at present the process for dry run and security audit is underway and the project is expected to commence the registration work by August, 2021 after a meeting to discuss the launch/ handover of portal to the states and other related issues is held on 20 July, 2021,” the report said.
It was further stated that the registration of unorganised workers under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, is going on and so far 5,56,291 unorganised workers have been registered.
The court said, “In view of the above statement made in the status report, it is apparent that the work of registration of workers of the unorganised sector is under way for which proper and necessary steps are being taken at the Government level.”
“It cannot be said that there is any wilful disobedience of any order of the court at this stage. Accordingly, the contempt proceedings are closed and contempt notice, if any issued, shall stand discharged,” the division bench noted and directed.
Earlier, the main petition filed by National Campaign Committee, a non-governmental organisation, through advocate Syed Musaib on the issues of workers was disposed of on the very first hearing with a direction to approach government authorities with the representation.
However, the petitioner organisation told the court that no steps have been taken by the government to mitigate the crisis faced by daily workers of the unorganised sector in view of the pandemic situation, thereby, filing a contempt plea.
The petitioner organisation had sought compulsory registration of all interstate migrant workers and wages to them, besides proper conditions of service, displacement allowance, journey allowance and other facilities.
It was submitted that the deaths caused by starvation will be much more than the deaths due to the virus.
“A severe humanitarian crisis is unfolding as workers are stranded without any food, shelter or means to go back home,” the plea had said.

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