Officially declared dead in Odisha, 2,487 workers ‘come alive’, authenticate Aadhaar to avail ration

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Death assistance amounting to ₹15.10 crore was subsequently paid to their nominees. File. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

In a bid to hoodwink Odisha’s welfare machinery, almost 2,500 construction workers appear to have defied the rules of mortality — they died on paper, collected death benefits, and then came back to life to authenticate their Aadhaar and collect their monthly ration.

An audit has blown the lid off what appears to be a bizarre and massive fraud under the State’s Nirman Shramik welfare scheme. As many as 2,487 construction workers were declared dead and their nominees were paid death assistance, even though the workers continued to draw subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and State Food Security Scheme after their recorded deaths.

The contradiction becomes even more startling in 753 cases. The audit found that these beneficiaries authenticated their Aadhaar biometrically to obtain ration after they had officially been declared dead. Death assistance amounting to ₹15.10 crore was subsequently paid to their nominees.

In other words, the government’s records had buried the workers, while its ration system was still recognising their fingerprints. This damning indictment, found in the draft information system audit report on ‘Implementation of PAReSHRAM and Nirman Sharamik Portal in the State’, is expected to be part of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Audit report for the financial year 2024-2025.

“This implies the beneficiary was alive and authenticating her Aadhaar physically to avail ration indicating fraudulent disbursement of death benefit. Further, it also indicates that medical officers issued death certificates against alive persons,” the draft report says.

Subu R., the Principal Accountant General (Audit-1) of Odisha, had sent the draft report to Chithra Arumugam, then Additional Chief Secretary to the Labour and ESI Department, soliciting her response on the massive anomalies indicating corruption in the implementation of the Nirman Shramik scheme. A copy of the draft report has been obtained by The Hindu .

Under the Nirman Shramik scheme, building and construction workers between ages of 18 and 60 years who have completed at least 90 days of work in the preceding 12 months and are not enrolled in any other welfare fund are eligible for registration under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. Once registered, workers are entitled to various welfare benefits including educational scholarships for their children, assistance for marriage, maternity, and funeral expenses, and death compensation.

A nominee is entitled to ₹2 lakh as a death benefit and ₹5,000 as funeral assistance upon the death of an eligible registered worker. All financial assistance is paid from the dedicated fund of the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, which collects a cess of 1% of the construction cost incurred by an employer.