Delhi to pay Rs 8,000 to construction workers hit by anti-pollution curbs

The Delhi government has decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 8,000 to each of the over 90,000 registered construction workers affected by the construction ban in the city due to severe air pollution.
This move follows the Supreme Court’s directive to the government to provide a subsistence allowance to construction workers impacted by the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) provisions.
According to these provisions, only workers registered as beneficiaries under the Building and Other Construction Workers (BoCW) Act, 1996, with active memberships as of November 25, 2024 (as per the Supreme Court’s order), are eligible for the allowance.
Of these, 90,759 workers have self-certified that they completed 90 days of construction work in the past year, but their claims still require verification before payment, the officials said.
To streamline the process, the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board has launched a bilingual online verification link and sent SMS notifications asking workers to submit the necessary details. After verification, allowances will be directly transferred to Aadhaar-linked bank accounts via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
Additionally, physical verification is mandatory. The Board has approved a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for this, under which tentative beneficiaries will be called to district offices for verification. Workers must bring their registration certificates and Aadhaar cards, and district teams will verify their authenticity through interviews and, if necessary, consultations with employers.
The construction ban was imposed on November 18 as part of the Graded Response Action Plan to curb pollution.