Welfare laptop, washing machine shock SC
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Union labour secretary to appear before it after expressing shock over "astonishing" details in an affidavit that said funds meant for the welfare of construction workers were being spent on buying them laptops and washing machines.
The affidavit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) also said that less than 10 per cent of the Rs 29,000-crore fund has been spent on the actual purpose.
A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said it was "shocking" and "extremely distressing" that the funds, collected by the government through a cess under a law for construction workers, were being "frittered away" and diverted.
The court then asked the labour secretary to appear before it on November 10 "to understand how the act was being implemented and why it was being misused, if not abused".
The court, which was hearing a public interest plea filed by a non-government organisation, had earlier asked the CAG to file a report on how the fund meant for the welfare of construction workers was being utilised.
The NGO, National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour, had alleged that the statutory cess levied on real estate firms for the welfare of construction workers was not being used properly as there was no mechanism to identify the beneficiaries.
The bench said the CAG had revealed a "shocking state of affairs" regarding the utilisation of the cess collected under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and ordered that such exploitation of construction workers by states or welfare boards must stop.
"For example: we have been shown expenditure having been incurred for payment of entry tax/value added tax; expenditure incurred for purchase of washing machines for construction workers; expenditure incurred for purchase of laptops for construction workers, etc. This is really astonishing," the bench noted in its order.
"It is quite obvious from the above that the amounts are just being frittered away, if not defalcated by the concerned welfare boards," it said.
"Apart from the above, we find that huge amounts have been spent towards administrative expenses while the statute permits only five per cent expenditure towards administrative expenses."
The court observed that the law was "being misused" as the money collected for the beneficiaries was being diverted to labour welfare boards or state governments for other purposes.
"We may note that huge amounts have been collected in the region of Rs 29,000 crore and not even 10 per cent has been spent for the benefit of construction workers. The amounts, whatever has been spent, appear to have been spent for the purposes other than for the benefit of construction workers," it said.
This must be rectified at the earliest, the bench added, asking the secretary in the Union labour ministry to appear before it on Friday.
Earlier, in 2015, the court had expressed its displeasure over non-utilisation of Rs 26,000 crore (the amount at that time) by the Centre and various state governments, saying "it cannot get worse than this". PTI
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