Dehradun: On the third day of the assembly budget session, the CAG report was presented on the floor of the House. The CAG report has exposed the rigging and irregularities in the Uttarakhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.
According to the CAG, not only did the board purchase household goods against the orders of the central ministry, but no one knows where the bicycles and toolkits purchased went.
Apart from this, during the Corona period, about Rs 7.19 crore was distributed against the rules for marriage scheme, from giving ration kits to ineligible people.
Toolkits, bicycles and ration kits distributed to ineligible people
According to the CAG report of the financial year 2021-22, toolkits, bicycles and ration kits were distributed to ineligible people by the Uttarakhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.
1 lakh rupees distributed in the name of female worker marriage
There was a provision to give 51 thousand rupees as financial assistance for the marriage of workers’ daughters or female workers, but breaking this rule, the board made it one lakh rupees as financial assistance and distributed about Rs 7.19 crore more to 1468 beneficiaries between December 2018 and November 2021. During this, the eligibility of the beneficiaries was also not checked.
Worker death compensation given after 140 days
There is a provision to give compensation to the dependents of the deceased worker within 60 days of the death of any worker, but the average time for giving compensation in Dehradun and Udyam Singh Nagar was found to be 140 days.
Maternity benefit given against the rules
Under the Maternity Scheme, maternity benefit was increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 against the rules. Also, more than Rs 19.75 lakh was paid in 225 cases. Apart from this, bypassing the order of the Supreme Court, the board gave a benefit of 215 crores to 5,47,274 unregistered people. DBT was not used during this period.
Bicycles were purchased, but not distributed
Officials of Uttarakhand Bhawan and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board also purchased 83,560 bicycles worth about Rs 32.78 crore from an IT company between the years 2018 and 2022. Whereas this IT company was registered for IT services. 37,665 bicycles were sent to Dehradun district by the board, but only 6020 bicycles were found out of these, which were distributed, but it is not known where the rest of the bicycles went.
Bicycles were distributed four times to 6 workers in Udham Singh Nagar
Apart from this, in Udham Singh Nagar district, bicycles were distributed twice to 216 workers, thrice to 28 workers and four times to six workers. Not only this, the board also distributed 20,053 blankets, bypassing the order given by the Central Ministry on 25 March 2021.
The CAG report has exposed all the scams and irregularities in the Uttarakhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board. According to the report, the workers board had purchased toolkits from another IT company for about Rs 33.23 crore. The IT company from which the board purchased the toolkits was listed for IT services in the board. Despite this, the board purchased thousands of toolkits. The CAG investigation found that 22,426 tool kits were supplied in Dehradun, out of which only 171 tool kits were distributed, while it could not be ascertained where the remaining 22,255 toolkits went. Not only this, receipts were also not taken from the beneficiaries who received the toolkits.
Rigging in distribution of ration kits
In the same sequence, during the Corona period in the year 2020, there was a lot of rigging by the board in distributing ration kits. The board had issued an order in May 2020 that door-to-door ration kits would be distributed to registered workers. For this, 75 thousand ration kits worth Rs 9.36 crore were purchased. But these ration kits were distributed to people who were not registered. CAG has also raised questions on this matter that a total of 53.58 crore ration kits were purchased from IT services company ITI Limited. On this, the company had also claimed about 3.51 crore centage fee against the rules.
Uttarakhand Bhawan and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board did not register the construction works. Due to which the board suffered a loss of about Rs 88.27 lakh in the amount received as registration fee. Budgets were prepared showing estimated receipts and expenditure between the financial years 2017-18 and 2021-22 but they were not submitted. Despite this, the board spent Rs 607.09 crore during this period without the approval of the government. Not only this, the board has completely failed in implementing health and safety norms for workers at workplaces.
