990 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
406
*** Housing Conditions of Labourers Employed** by Central P.W.D. and Building Contractors in New Delhi
- Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar : Will the Honourable the Labour Member please state :
(a) the number of labourers employed directly under the Central Public Works Department and by building contractors in New Delhi for the construction of buildings in New Delhi and near about,
(b) if it is a fact that these labourers are housed in miserable ill-ventilated hovels, exposed to the vagaries of the weather all the time in sun, and rain and cold, and
(c) if the answer to (b) above is in the affirmative, what steps he proposes to take in order to provide them with cheap and sanitary housing arrangements, if none, why ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) About 12,000 labourers are employed directly under the C.P.W.D. whereas the number of labourers employed by the building contractors varies with the magnitude of the building programme.
(b) Some of the C.P.W.D. labourers have been allotted Government quarters and others have made their own arrangements for residential accommodation.
As regards the labourers employed by the contractors, about
9,000live in their houses in the urban area of Delhi. The remaining labourers who come from outside either come to the work daily from their villages or are accommodated by the contractors at the site of the works in thatched huts which give them a certain amount of protection against sun, rain and cold.
(c) The Government have already considered the question of providing permanent accommodation to the labourers employed by the contractors and are considering the development of model bustees in the villages near Delhi, from which labour comes. Government’s scheme for subsidised housing for the poorer sections of the people
***** Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. III of 1946, 12th March 1946, p. 2224.