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The Himachal Pradesh Building & Other Construction Workers Welfare Board will disburse INR 20.61 crore in financial assistance to 4,967 eligible beneficiaries under 14 welfare schemes on August 15. The assistance covers marriage, education, death and funeral expenses, housing, maternity and paternity support and other categories. The Board currently has 4,84,860 registered workers and has carried out 98,000 e-KYC verifications to identify ineligible beneficiaries. The Board also plans to increase welfare disbursement to INR 300 crore in the coming year, while district-level allocations show Hamirpur, Kangra, Una and Mandi among the largest beneficiary districts.
The Himachal Pradesh Building & Other Construction Workers Welfare Board will disburse INR 20.61 crore to 4,967 eligible beneficiaries under 14 welfare schemes on August 15, 2026. The announcement was made by Board Chairman Nardev Kanwar at a press conference in Shimla. According to the Board, 4,84,860 construction workers are currently registered under its welfare programmes.
Kanwar said the present state government had disbursed around INR 95 crore to construction workers and their families through various welfare schemes over the past three and a half years. The Board has now set a target of disbursing INR 300 crore in the coming year, with the aim of extending assistance to a larger number of eligible workers.
The Board is also carrying out verification of its registered beneficiaries. As part of this process, around 98,000 e-KYC verifications have been completed to identify workers who may not meet the eligibility requirements for the schemes.
Kanwar alleged that around 70,000 ineligible workers had been registered during the previous BJP government’s tenure in 2021-22 and that around INR 176 crore had been disbursed to them within nine months. He said the e-KYC exercise has helped identify these beneficiaries and that corrective measures are being taken so that financial assistance is provided to genuine and eligible construction workers.
The largest allocation among the schemes announced for the current disbursement is INR 8.98 crore under the Marriage Assistance Scheme, followed by INR 7.89 crore under the Education Assistance Scheme.
Other allocations include INR 1.49 crore under Death and Funeral Assistance, INR 89.77 lakh under the CM/PM Awas Yojana, INR 61 lakh for single women, deserted women and divyang women, and INR 38.02 lakh under the Maternity and Paternity Assistance Scheme.
District-wise, Hamirpur has the highest number of beneficiaries under the announced disbursement. A total of 1,298 workers from the district will receive INR 5.43 crore. Kangra follows with 720 beneficiaries receiving INR 2.89 crore, while Una has 606 beneficiaries receiving INR 2.52 crore. Mandi has 571 beneficiaries and will receive INR 2.80 crore for distribution among them. Workers from Shimla, Sirmaur, Chamba, Bilaspur, Kullu, Kinnaur and Solan will also receive assistance under different welfare schemes.
The welfare framework for construction workers in Himachal Pradesh operates under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and the related welfare cess legislation. The state’s welfare programmes have historically covered areas such as education, marriage, maternity and paternity assistance, funeral support, pensions, housing and other forms of financial assistance. The state’s Economic Survey has also recorded the Board’s role in providing welfare benefits to registered construction workers and their families.
The latest verification exercise is particularly relevant as the number of registered workers has increased substantially over the years. The Board’s current focus is therefore not only on increasing the amount of financial assistance but also on ensuring that benefits are linked to eligible workers.
Source PTI
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