Bangalore, December 13: The Karnataka High Court, on Friday, directed Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) to provide details of contractors who are executing works on the Metro project.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice S.N. Satyanarayana issued the direction stating that individual contractors will be put on notice and be held directly responsible for violation of labour laws.
Workmen’s interest
The Bench issued the direction on noticing that the regular mechanism, including booking of criminal cases against the contractors violating various labour laws, did not protect the interest of workmen.
Assistant Solicitor General Kalyan Basavaraj told the Bench that licences of three contractors were suspended for a period of 10 days for not adhering to certain labour laws.
Meanwhile, Senior Counsel S.S. Naganand, appearing for the BMPCL, pointed out that major contractors like L&T and others, would not intend to violate laws but violations were committed by the sub-contractors engaged by these main contractors.
Following this, the Bench directed the BMRCL to place details of all the contractors and the number of workmen engaged by each of them.
Poor living conditions
The Bench was hearing a public interest litigation petition complaining about poor living conditions and violation of labour laws in execution of metro project.
