CHANDIGARH, Dec 30: Haryana Labour Minister Anil Vij has flagged large-scale irregularities in the issuance of work slips by the Haryana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, estimating the alleged scam could amount to nearly Rs 1,500 crore.
Citing the seriousness of the findings, Vij has written to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, recommending an investigation by a reputed agency. The irregularities came to light during a recent meeting of the Welfare Board, he said.
“Preliminary findings show that benefits meant for genuine construction workers have been cornered by ineligible persons,” Vij said, adding that a detailed inquiry was ordered immediately.
Initial investigations were conducted in districts including Hisar, Kaithal, Jind, Sirsa, Faridabad and Bhiwani, where large-scale discrepancies were detected. Following this, deputy commissioners across the state were directed to constitute district-level verification committees.
These committees, comprising a labour department officer and three other officials, are physically verifying online work slips issued between August 2023 and March 2025. The verification process began around four months ago and has so far been completed in 13 districts.
According to Vij, in districts such as Karnal, Rewari, Nuh, Mahendragarh, Gurugram and Rohtak, nearly six lakh work slips were issued, of which only 53,249 were found to be genuine. Around 5.47 lakh slips were declared invalid.
Similarly, out of 2.22 lakh labour registrations, only 14,240 workers were found eligible after verification, he said.
“In many places, entire villages were fraudulently registered,” Vij said. “This is outright loot and has caused losses running into hundreds of crores.”
