States pulled up for procuring home goods with funds meant for welfare

Stainless metal utensils, umbrellas, lanterns and cycles — months into the pandemic, cash from a fund aimed toward delivering security, well being and welfare measures for development employees is as a substitute being routed by a number of states to situation tenders for buy and distribution of those home goods. Multiple circumstances of ‘misuse’ of cash from the Building and Other Construction Workers’ (BOCW) Welfare Fund have now been flagged by the Central Building and Other Construction Workers’ Advisory Board, an arm of the Union Labour Ministry.
Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are amongst states which are learnt to have been set missives by the Central Advisory Board on the misuse of funds for buy and distribution of things equivalent to utensils, umbrellas, lanterns and cycles, as a substitute of tangible contingency measures equivalent to cash transfers, two senior authorities officers mentioned.
While the Advisory Board has flagged the acquisition of stainless-steel utensils via a young course of by the Maharashtra authorities, the distribution of umbrellas and lanterns has been red-flagged in Himachal Pradesh, an official mentioned. “The procurement process adds layers to the entire process, with possibility of corruption at both the procurement stage and at the distribution end. Instead, the funds collected under the BOCW Welfare Fund could have been used for direct cash transfers to the workers,” the official informed The Indian Express.
Referring to issuance of tenders for provide of stainless-steel utensils by the Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board underneath the state’s Labour Department, the Central Advisory Board’s Chairman V Srinivasa Naidu in a missive to the state late final month known as for “stopping the misuse” of the BOCW funds and cancellation of tender course of.
“I have received few representations bringing into my notice that the state BOC Workers Welfare Board of Maharashtra has invited tenders for supply of household kits to construction workers, which is in contravention of the orders of the Honourable Supreme Court. Hence, I request your kind self to intervene in this matter and direct the concerned officials to stop misuse of BOC Workers welfare Fund and cancel the tender process,” Naidu wrote within the letter.
In its tender doc issued January 26, the Maharashtra authorities said that BOC employees migrate from one place to a different and must “mitigate with constant change in habitat/residence, health issues, education of children and food” and in an effort to facilitate each day cooking and serving meals, a equipment of home items is required. This scheme was permitted by a state authorities decision dated January 18.
Queries despatched to Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments on this situation went unanswered.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated commerce union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) too had flagged the problem of utilisation of funds from the BOCW Welfare Fund for schemes not strictly underneath the purview of welfare schemes. In its letter to the Labour and Employment Ministry dated March 1, BMS wrote in regards to the “arbitrary use of funds” for development of a constructing and distribution of utensils as a substitute for use for the welfare of development employees.
Last March, after the imposition of the lockdown to mitigate the affect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre had requested states to make use of funds of round Rs 31,000 crore of their respective state development employee welfare funds underneath the BOCW Cess Act for 3.5 crore registered employees. The newest out there authorities knowledge for state-wise breakup of registered BOC employees confirmed Uttar Pradesh having the very best share of such employees at 48.5 lakh, adopted by West Bengal at 31.01 lakh.
An advisory was issued by the Labour Ministry on March 24, 2020 to all states/UTs to offer monetary help to BOC employees by way of direct profit switch (DBT) from the BOCW Welfare Fund maintained by them. Most state governments gave out grants between Rs 1,000 and 5,000 per 30 days to registered BOC employees.
As per Ministry estimates, throughout Covid-19, Rs 5,012 crore had been distributed by state/UT welfare boards to some 1.83 crore BOC employees instantly into their financial institution accounts via DBT until December 2020. States at the moment are resorting to channelising the funds to tender and procure home goods.