As COVID-19 cases increasing in Maharashtra, several real estate developers are undertaking precautionary measures as mandated by the state government to ensure the safety of workers at construction sites and have urged the government to prioritise vaccination for workers above 18 years.
On April 4, the state government had announced several restrictions for containment of COVID-19 for the period up to April 30, 2021. Construction activity is to be allowed only for sites where labourers’ are living on site. Movement to and from the site must be avoided, except for the purposed of material movements.
The new guidelines have said that everyone engaged in the activity needs to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI and until that is done they would have to carry a negative RTPCR test result certificate, which will be valid for 15 days. This rule will come into effect from April 10, 2021, the guidelines have said.
They have said that any defaults will lead to a fine of Rs 10,000 for the developer of the construction site and repeated defaults may lead to closure of the site till existence of notification of COVID-19 epidemic.
The guidelines have said that if a worker is found positive, he or she would be allowed medical leave and cannot be discontinued during this absence for this reason. “He or she will be entitled for full wages that he or she might have earned had he or she not contacted corona,” the guidelines said.