HC orders audit of worker's money within six months.

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HC orders audit of worker's money within six months. 

  The Odisha high court ordered a special audit of Rs 50 per annum and registration fee of Rs 20 collected from all registered construction workers in the state under Construction Worker's (Regulation and condition of services) Act,1996.The HC also sought a special audit of the cess collected under construction workers welfare cess Act,1996.

   The HC issued the order after finding that over Rs 579 crore remained unutilised by the end of 2022.There are nearly nine lakh registered construction workers in the state.The HC was hearing a PIL filed by the Odisha state Legal services Authority (OSLA).The petition concerned the state government's actions to strictly implement the provisions of two acts.

      The two judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice M S Raman directed the state government to conduct within six months the special audit of all the amounts collected and disbursed under the two acts and file the report on affidavit before the matter is taken up next on July 31.Earlier when the state government filed a reply affidavit OSLSA's counsel Mrinalini Padhi pointed out that though it gave details of collection and disbursal of the cess no mention was made of the Rs 50 being collected per annum from all the registered construction workers. 

   Subsequently, the state government filed  another affidavit in pursuance of the HC's order OSLSA's counsel filed a note on the figures provided by the state government in the affidavit. 

   The note pointed out that by the end of December 2022 a balance of over Rs 579 crore remain unutilised. This was also not disputed by the state counsel. 

   Taking note of it the Bench said "Considering that the unutilised amount is considerable and was meant essentially to cater to the needs of the building and construction workers, the court considers it necessary to require the state to get a special audit undertaken of all the amounts collected under the Acts.