Labour department of Madhya Pradesh fraudulently distributed over Rs 26 lakh to 61 alive people who were declared dead on papers. The department give money to family of deceased people under its scheme of “funeral and death assistance”.
Representative image | Reuters
The fraud was exposed by the auditors when they came to know that the beneficiary “dead” people are actually alive. Comptroller and Auditor General on scrutiny found that the labour department officials have put forged death certificates in their records to claim the assistance money.
The CAG discovered that the department has distributed Rs 3.57 crore in 1,201 cases of death of labourers. Government under its scheme of “Antyeshti evam Anugraha Sahayata Yojana’’ (funeral and death assistance scheme) give Rs 25,000 to Rs 75,000 in special cases. This money is given as an assistance to labour family who might not have any other means of income when the wage-earner dies.
The family of any labour registered with the department gets an ex-gratia amount in the event of his death. Rs 75,000, in addition to Rs 2,000 for cremation assistance, is given in case the labours' age is below 45 years. If he is between 45 to 60 years, he is entitled for Rs 25,000 plus Rs 2,000 of cremation assistance.
CAG, in its report of 2016, said that it has audited a sample of 354 cases of the period between 2011 to 2016 out of which 61 cases were found to be fraudulent where fake death certificates were produced. In Betul, Burhanpur and Ujjain districts, some 16 such cases were exposed by CAG where Rs 5.86 lakh was swindled.
In Ujjain Municipal Corporation, Rs 4.49 lakh was distributed in five cases while similar cases were also discovered in Dewas, Sonkutch and Gwalior.
The labour department of Madhya Pradesh is known for its generosity in running schemes for daily wagers and those belonging to labour class. They distribute cash under various schemes for poor labours.
