Funds meant for construction workers’ welfare misused in Hisar

Exposing loopholes in the online portal system for the granting of benefits of welfare schemes, the Labour Department has detected 23 cases in which the applicants tried to avail themselves of the benefits meant for the construction workers by fraudulent means from the Haryana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board of the Haryana Labour Department.

Officials of the Labour Department have submitted a detailed complaint to the Hisar police for the registration of FIRs as per the directions from the state headquarters at Chandigarh in all such cases. The police had recently registered the FIRs and started further probe, said sources.

The police sources revealed that the Labour Department had submitted a list of 23 cases in which the applicants had submitted frivolous death certificates of their relatives to claim the financial aid. The sources said these cases were detected last year in different months and a list was compiled with all details, including the name of the applicants, their addresses, phone numbers and the copies of the death certificates issued by the Health Department or the municipalities at different places.

The department inquiry indicated that the applicants had uploaded forged death certificates of their relatives on the web portal of the Haryana Labour Department — hrylabour.gov.in. Revealing the modus operandi, the sources said during inquiry, it came to light that the persons had died earlier while they were registered as construction workers with the Labour Board after their deaths. Subsequently, another death certificate of these deceased persons (who were registered as construction workers) was prepared apparently in a fraudulent way. This death certificate, along with the details of the deceased construction workers, was uploaded on the web portal to claim the death compensation of Rs 2 lakh and funeral grant of Rs 15,000.

Manoj Soni, district secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said he came to know that the fraud was detected in 2023 in Hisar by the officials concerned. He said the grant meant for the genuine construction workers were being siphoned off across the state. “Apparently, there is a nexus of unscrupulous agents and corrupt officials in the department,” he alleged, adding that out of about 7 lakh registered construction workers, almost 50 per cent were not genuine. Unfortunately, the genuine construction workers, mostly migrants, were not being registered with the Board and thus, they were not getting any benefits, he said.

The online central processing system (CPS) of the applications in the welfare board started in December 2018. Prior to this, there was a manual system. Soni alleged that there was just 10 per cent corruption during the manual system that had gone up manifold after the launch of CPS.

DK Saini, Deputy Director, Hisar Labour Department, said as per the directions from the head-office, we had submitted the complaint to the police for further necessary action.