As Delhiites continue to choke on toxic air, the Supreme Court on Wednesday, December 17, took cognizance of the matter and told the Rekha Gupta-led government to “think of a pragmatic and practical solution” to tackle the air pollution crisis in the national capital. The Supreme Court also termed the “total failure” of the authorities to check the level of pollutants in the city, ANI reported.
Talking about the plight of construction workers who lost their jobs after GRAP-4 was imposed in the national capital to curb pollution, the apex court also ordered the Delhi government to assess how many construction workers lost their jobs due to restrictions in Delhi and “transfer the money to their accounts”.
“Verify and ensure that the payment goes directly to their account, it should not be like after a few hours it disappears, it goes to another account…just because you send it to the account and the account is Aadhar verified is not an effective solution,” said Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant.
In response, the Delhi government told the Supreme Court that 7,000 of the 2.5 million construction workers are being verified and the money will be transferred to their accounts.
This was announced today by Delhi Labor Minister Kapil Mishra ₹10,000 compensation for unemployed construction workers as a result of GRAP III and GRAP IV anti-pollution measures. “Employees will be given compensation for the days when GRAP IV is valid. These benefits will be extended to workers registered with the government. The registration process is underway,” he said.
During today’s hearing, the Supreme Court also asked the Delhi government to consider providing alternative work to construction workers sitting idle due to the restrictions.
“Let’s think about 2026, all work is stopped in December, but it will come in January-February…why don’t you come up with a plan to keep them working in permissible activities and they can’t be diverted to that?” asked the chief judge.
