New Delhi, Apr 1 (IANS): The Delhi government has transferred a Rs 5,000 assistance amount into the bank accounts of 32,358 registered daily wage labourers associated with construction work in the city to assist them during the 21-day lockdown.

Last week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that the government will give this assistance to the labourers through the Labour Welfare Board.

"The money is being transferred directly to the account of these labourers. The Delhi government has released Rs 5,000 assistance amount for 32,358 registered workers on March 31," Labour Minister Gopal Rai said.

According to the government, a total amount of Rs 16.18 crore has been given to the registered construction workers of Delhi.

Rai said the government will soon give the assistance amount to over 9,000 additional workers who are not registered.

"A total amount of Rs 4.50 crore will be disbursed in this regard. Moreover, pension of 200 construction workers has also been released up to March 31 in the view of COVID-19 outbreak."

A total of 9,149 daily wage labourers have not been registered under the board yet but the process of registration of all these people already started, so that they can also be given relief amount soon.

To tackle the Coronavirus outbreak, India is under a 21 day lockdown.