States must compensate construction workers affected by GRAP even without court orders: SC
The Supreme Court has asked the governments of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to pay compensation to construction workers whenever they are affected by closure of construction activities due to Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) measures in Delhi-NCR even without specific court orders.
The GRAP is a set of anti-air pollution measures followed in Delhi-NCR according to the severity of air pollution. It classifies the air quality in the Delhi-NCR under four different stages: Stage 1 - ‘poor’ (AQI 201-300), Stage 2 - ‘very poor’ (AQI 301-400), Stage 3 - ‘severe’ (AQI 401-450) and Stage 4 - ‘severe plus’ (AQI above 450).
GRAP-4 measures include a ban on truck entry and a temporary halt on construction at public projects, except for those carrying essential items or using clean fuel (LNG/CNG/BS-VI diesel/electric).
As GRAP-4 measures adversely affected construction workers, a Bench led by Justices Abhay S Oka said compensation should be paid to affected workers using funds collected as labour cess.
”As far as 2024 and 2025 are concerned we have issued directions to the state to pay compensation. We make it clear that hereafter whenever the construction activities are required to be closed due to implementation of GRAP measures, compensation shall be paid to the affected workers in terms of directions issued by this court dated 24th November 2021. Even if there is no specific direction of the court to pay compensation, the NCR States shall pay compensation,” the Bench said on Friday.
Haryana, in the first and second phases of GRAP-4, has paid compensation to 2,68,759 and 2,24,881 workers, respectively, the Bench was informed. The process of paying compensation to around 95,000 workers for the January 2025 GRAP 4 period is underway.
The Delhi Government counsel told the court that compensation had been paid to 93,272 workers and the verification process for the remaining registered workers is in progress.
Rajasthan Government informed the Bench that compensation had been paid to 3,197 workers, while Uttar Pradesh said that compensation had been disbursed to 4,88,246, 4,84,157, and 691 affected workers during phases 1, 2, and 3 of GRAP, respectively.
The top court had earlier pulled up the Delhi government for not paying the full subsistence allowance to construction workers, who went without work due to the curbs imposed to combat air pollution in the national capital.
It asked the Delhi Government to convene a meeting of the workers’ union immediately to ensure their registration. Similar directions were passed to Rajasthan, where Bharatpur and Alwar districts fell in the NCR, besides 14 districts of Haryana and eight districts of UP, to convene a meeting of workers’ unions and pay the subsistence allowance.
