Officially declared dead in Odisha, 2,487 workers ‘come alive’, authenticate Aadhaar to avail ration

In a bid to hoodwink Odisha’s welfare machinery, almost 2,500 construction workers appear to have defied the rules of mortality — they died on paper, collected death benefits, and then came back to life to authenticate their Aadhaar and collect their monthly ration.

An audit has blown the lid off what appears to be a bizarre and massive fraud under the State’s Nirman Shramik welfare scheme. As many as 2,487 construction workers were declared dead and their nominees were paid death assistance, even though the workers continued to draw subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and State Food Security Scheme after their recorded deaths.

The contradiction becomes even more startling in 753 cases. The audit found that these beneficiaries authenticated their Aadhaar biometrically to obtain ration after they had officially been declared dead. Death assistance amounting to ₹15.10 crore was subsequently paid to their nominees.

In other words, the government’s records had buried the workers, while its ration system was still recognising their fingerprints. This damning indictment, found in the draft information system audit report on ‘Implementation of PAReSHRAM and Nirman Sharamik Portal in the State’, is expected to be part of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Audit report for the financial year 2024-2025.

“This implies the beneficiary was alive and authenticating her Aadhaar physically to avail ration indicating fraudulent disbursement of death benefit. Further, it also indicates that medical officers issued death certificates against alive persons,” the draft report says.

Subu R., the Principal Accountant General (Audit-1) of Odisha, had sent the draft report to Chithra Arumugam, then Additional Chief Secretary to the Labour and ESI Department, soliciting her response on the massive anomalies indicating corruption in the implementation of the Nirman Shramik scheme. A copy of the draft report has been obtained by The Hindu.

Under the Nirman Shramik scheme, building and construction workers between ages of 18 and 60 years who have completed at least 90 days of work in the preceding 12 months and are not enrolled in any other welfare fund are eligible for registration under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. Once registered, workers are entitled to various welfare benefits including educational scholarships for their children, assistance for marriage, maternity, and funeral expenses, and death compensation.

A nominee is entitled to ₹2 lakh as a death benefit and ₹5,000 as funeral assistance upon the death of an eligible registered worker. All financial assistance is paid from the dedicated fund of the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, which collects a cess of 1% of the construction cost incurred by an employer. The board had accumulated more than ₹4,000 crore by 2024.

“On cross analysis of the NFSA data, audit observed that 3,013 death beneficiaries under Nirman Shramik scheme were also beneficiaries under NFSA. In 914 cases, discrepancy was also observed in the name of worker under Nirman Shramik with that of person registered under NFSA having same Aadhaar. Hence, disbursal of death benefits to those persons having difference in name updated in Aadhaar was abnormal,” the audit points out.

Auditors have also analysed the database and cross verified this information with the Odisha Birth Death Registration System (OBDRS) data provided by the Odisha Computer Application Centre.

“It was noticed that 15,265 death cases matched whereas 9,325 cases did not match with the OBDRS data. Audit scrutinised the death certificates from Nirman Shramik scheme and OBDRS portal and found that in 405 cases, the death certificate was fake and death certificate of other persons were uploaded. Out of 405 cases, in 268 cases, benefits of ₹5.49 crore was disbursed and in remaining 137 cases, the applications amounting ₹2.81 crore are under process for approval,” the draft report says.

The auditors also recorded physical meetings with two people who were declared dead in the Nirman Shramik scheme and granted death benefits.

The audit detects different methods to manipulate the Nirman Shramik scheme. Similar inconsistencies were found in the case of disbursement of marriage assistance. It was noticed in the audit that 676 marriage certificate registration dates were prior to the actual date of marriage.

The Hindu had previously reported massive fraud under the scheme in a report titled, “Dead Odisha workers ‘resurrected’ on paper, only to be ‘killed’ again for death benefits”, published on August 19, 2024. In fact, Odisha’s Labour Department had filed a criminal case with the Rayagada police station, flagging massive fraud and providing evidence of corruption, but the investigation did not yield any conclusive outcome. The then-Labour Officer accused of being involved in the massive fraud was reinstated in his job after a temporary suspension.

The audit has now vindicated the allegations of a massive scam, with the draft report currently in the final stages of scrutiny before publication, official sources said.