Over Rs 500 cr claims for aid to kin of deceased workers pending with Labour Welfare Board

The Himachal Pradesh State Labour Welfare Board is facing criticised for the prolonged delay in the disbursal of financial assistance to the families of deceased registered workers and pending welfare claims of over Rs 500 crore.

Advertisement

According to Bhupender Singh, state general secretary of the MGNREGA and Construction Workers’ Union, the board has not provided even the basic financial assistance for funeral and death to over 500 registered labourers, who had died in recent years.

Bhupender, who is also a member of the board, condemns its anti-worker attitude and accuses it of deliberately delaying the processing of the applications for financial assistance. He says that the claims of around 200 deceased workers are pending with the state office of the board in Hamirpur alone. The remaining claims are pending in Bilaspur (75), Hamirpur district office (45), Una (21), Mandi (15) and various other districts.

According to the norms, the dependent family members of deceased workers are entitled to Rs 20,000 as funeral expenses and Rs 2 lakh as death compensation. “Furthermore, the board is sitting over 1.7 lakh welfare claims related to education scholarships, marriage assistance, medical aid, maternity benefits, girl child birth assistance, house construction grants, hostel facilities and widow and old-age pensions. The total amount of these claims exceeds Rs 500 crore,” he adds.

Bhupender says, “As many as 7,849 new applications were submitted in various districts in the last financial year but most of them have not been processed. Hundreds of pension claims, including those of widowed workers, have not been processed.”

The issue has exacerbated due to an acute shortage of staff. Bhupender says that 55 posts are vacant in the board offices in various districts, hampering administrative efficiency.

He adds that the situation has worsened due to the board’s unilateral approach to conduct the mandatory e-KYC verification. The board has been repeatedly suggested to allow Lokmitra Kendras (public facilitation centres) to handle e-KYC but it insists that only its employees can conduct the verification. This has brought the entire process to a standstill. Even previously submitted welfare applications are now being subjected to new e-KYC requirements though such documentation was not mandatory at the time of the submission of an application.

Bhupender alleges that the board is withholding aid to registered workers through systemic bottlenecks and procedural roadblocks. He demands the immediate release of all pending assistance and swift reforms in the board’s functioning to ensure justice for the labour community.

However, Nardev Singh Kanwar, Chairman, Himachal Pradesh State Labour Welfare Board, refutes Bhupender’s allegations. He says that e-KYC under HIM Parivar is being done to detect ineligible persons, those who are getting financial assistance from the state government through the board on fake documents. So far, around 22,000 e-KYC cases have been done, he adds.

He claims that during verification, around 2,500 pre-registered workers were found ineligible for the financial aid. He says, “During the verification exercise, it was found that the wife of a lecturer working in the Education Department, wife of a Public Works Department official and the wife of an Army officer were registered as workers with the board. They are ineligible for the aid. So, we decided to complete the e-KYC process and thereafter give aid to the beneficiaries”. However financial benefits have been given to many workers, whose e-KYC has been completed, he adds.