Rhetoric and Reality II: Construction workers’ plight in UP no different

Poor Execution

• Expenditure ranged from 4.45% to 26.63% during FY18-FY22 fiscals
• Rs16.8 cr used on administrative expenditure
• Rs1,890 cr transferred to a corpus fund for operation of Atal Awasiya Vidyalayas

New Delhi: Politicians claim that they strive to make the lives of the poor, including construction workers, better. In Uttar Pradesh, however, that doesn’t seem to be happening, as evident by a report prepared by the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG).

The expenditure incurred by the State’s Building & Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Welfare Board on the welfare of workers against available funds ranged from 4.45 per cent to 26.63 per cent in the period between 2017-18 and 2021-22 financial years. In the same period, the expenditure covered anywhere between 5.55 per cent and 31.26 per cent of registered workers over the period.

FY2019 was the worst year from workers’ perspective, for the lowest percentages, 4.45 per cent and 5.55 per cent, happened in this financial year. In absolute numbers, total funds available for construction workers this fiscal Rs5,079.05 crore, of which only 193.85 crore was spent on them.

The CAG report further observed that the increase of expenditure in 2021-22 over 2020-21 was mainly due to expenditure of Rs958.87 crore under the Disaster Relief Assistance Scheme, Rs313.43 crore under the Girl Marriage Assistance Scheme, Rs193.19 crore under the Maternity, Infant & Girl Assistance Scheme, and Rs67.15 crore under the Nirman Kamgar Gambhir Bimari Sahayata Yojana.

Besides, Rs16.8 crore was used on administrative expenditure and Rs1,890 crore was transferred to a corpus fund for operation of Atal Awasiya Vidyalayas for children of workers registered with the board.

The mechanism adopted for accounting of the Labor Cess is not in conformity with the BOCW Cess Rules, 1998, which provide that the Cess collected shall be transferred to the board in the head of account of the board under the accounting procedures of the State, the CAG said. Accordingly, the collected Cess should be depicted in the public account and from there it may be transferred to the board’s account. The orders to transfer Cess directly to the bank account of the board without bringing it into government accounts violate the provisions of Article 266 of the Constitution of India. In the absence of accounting of Cess through government accounts, it was also not ascertainable from the accounts of the State government as to how much money was collected on account of Cess, fee, etc., and how much money was transferred to the board by various Cess Collectors.

Sums collected against labor Cess by the UP BOCW Welfare Board should be part of the public account of the State and from there it may be transferred to the board account, the CAG recommended. The board “should fulfill its mandate of improving the working condition of building and other construction workers and providing adequate financial assistance to them.”