Bogus death certificates of workers created to siphon off funds

Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board is entrusted with the disbursal of death relief to registered workers

The Telangana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board may have become a perennial source for fraudsters to siphon off funds through various dubious means.

A fresh scam has surfaced, of bogus death certificates uploaded onto the Board’s website, in order to claim death relief from the Board’s funds.

As custodian of the funds to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees garnered through welfare cess collected on each construction project, the Board is entrusted with the responsibility of disbursal of accidental/natural death relief to the registered building/other construction workers.

While it is generally noticed that the Telangana State has an influx of construction workers from other States who are not registered with the Board, death claims are being consistently submitted to the Board nevertheless.

Two years ago, multiple instances of bogus registrations and claims in the name of random persons surfaced, resulting in the Labour department ordering inquiry into the irregularities in 11 districts where unusually high number of claims were submitted.

In the fresh instance, an inquiry was ordered with regard to several claims from a few tribal hamlets of Suryapet district in 2021, and during the course of inquiry, it was revealed that all the claims submitted from there were accompanied by bogus death certificates.

A departmental inquiry has reportedly revealed that five claims from Mouniya Nayak Tanda, four each from Thummala Pen Pahad village panchayat and Pandya Nayak Tanda, and two from Raju Tanda had no valid basis whatsoever.