Nawanshahr/Raho- National Labour Organization (NLO) Convener Baldev Bharti State Awardee said that the website of Punjab Building and Construction Labour Welfare Board has been completely closed for the last 2 weeks. Due to which there is a lot of disappointment and anger among the beneficiaries of construction workers across Punjab. He said that earlier there were many flaws in the online portal of the board and its server used to remain down for a long time.
But now due to the complete closure of the website, the work of applying for construction workers' registration and welfare schemes has come to a complete halt. On the other hand, the 'Punjab Kirti Sahayak' app launched by the Punjab government is also not reliable. This app has confused the workers instead of providing relief. Construction workers have broken their daily working hours and are making rounds of facilities and are mentally disturbed.
Baldev Bharti also said that due to time constraints in the circumstances of the website being closed, many workers are suffering huge financial losses due to not being able to apply for registration, renewal and welfare scheme. Due to the closure of the board's website, many scheduled meetings of the sub-division level screening committees approving financial assistance for welfare scheme applications could not be held.
Apart from this, the approved financial assistance of welfare schemes has also stopped. NLO President Baldev Bharti strongly demanded from Chief Minister-cum-Chairman Punjab Building and Construction Workers Welfare Board Punjab Bhagwant Singh Mann that for the social security and bright future of the construction workers, the board's website and Punjab Kirti Sahayak App should be operated immediately in a proper manner.
Along with this, suitable grace period should also be provided in necessary cases for the period of website closure. In a separate press statement, the leader of the organization Baldev Bharti also demanded from the Punjab Government that the decisions taken by the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board in the meeting held on May 30, 2023 should be implemented. The condition of obtaining approval from the Principal Secretary Labour, Punjab Government for financial assistance of ex-gratia grant in case of death of the beneficiary during the grace period for renewal of beneficiary card should also be withdrawn immediately.