Tamil Nadu: Red tapism, complex rules hinder free housing for construction workers
A union authority stated around 200 Tiruchy construction workers had submitted applications with house plans, land titles, and ID proof but were waiting for over 15 months without any positive response
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CHENNAI: Nearly two years have passed since the State government rolled out a free housing scheme for the registered members of the Tamil Nadu Construction Workers Welfare Board (TNCWWB), yet hundreds of beneficiaries are still waiting for financial aid to build a house or purchase tenements.
Though the welfare board has no constraints on funding the scheme, the project has hit a roadblock due to cumbersome rules and red tapism.
Chief Minister MK Stalin on November 15, 2022 handed over orders to five beneficiaries to mark the launch of the scheme. On that occasion, the CM announced that Rs 400 crore had been earmarked for the housing scheme to benefit 10,000 registered members of the welfare board, annually.
In the first phase, a total of 100 beneficiaries would receive financial aid of Rs 4 lakh each to build a house (300 sq ft) or purchase a tenement from the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB).
The board stipulated that those registered for three years or more would be eligible for the housing scheme. It plans to fund the scheme through a corpus generated by collecting 1% of the total cost of each construction project executed by the builder, collected in the form of labour cess.
"No other State has such a scheme for construction workers. However, the rules are complicated and involve too many departments, which hinders implementation. The waiting list of beneficiaries is growing," said a source involved in the process of shortlisting beneficiaries.
The scheme was an instant hit among the 15 lakh registered members of the board, with hundreds of registered members quickly submitting applications for financial aid to build houses or purchase tenements.
Explaining the long and complicated process, he said that for each application, they must obtain a no-objection certificate from the revenue department and TNUHDB should confirm that the applicant has not benefited from any other government housing scheme. It must also be endorsed by a district-level committee headed by the Collector.
T Karunanidhi, President of the Construction Workers Panchayat Sangam's Tiruchy district unit, stated that around 200 workers from the district had submitted their applications along with necessary documents, including house plans, land titles, and identification proof. They said they have been waiting for more than 15 months without any positive response from the authorities.
"Whenever we approach the labour department officials or the welfare board, they say they have not received funds," he noted. He added that a similar situation prevails in other districts as well.
In Chennai, the welfare board paid Rs 36 lakh to TNHUD for nine tenements under the scheme. "The authorities will hand over the tenements to beneficiaries soon," said an official, pointing out that the CM had inaugurated the tenements a couple of days ago.
However, the chairperson of the welfare board Pon Kumar admitted that legal tangles have made it difficult to implement the scheme. He justified the delay by citing a Supreme Court order directing an audit by the Attorney General for government housing schemes, following a large-scale scam in north India. Therefore, officials here are not taking any chances, he said, adding that they were working on "simplifying the rules to overcome the inordinate delay in implementing the scheme."
