Rayagada DLO axed: Collector Mahajan constitutes a high level team to investigate serious fraud
Rayagada (Badal Tha) : Jasmine Subhadarshani Sahu, District Labour Officer in the Divisional Labour Commissioner Office at Rayagada has been suspended by Principal Secretary, labour & ESI Deptt, Govt of Odisha for huge embezzlement of death benefit funds meant to support the nominees of deceased construction labourers registered under Odisha Building & Other Construction Worker Welfare Board (OB & OCWWB).
A team comprising of senior social workers, RTI activists and journalists representing Society for Fast Justice(SFFJ) in Rayagada came to know from reliable sources about huge irregularities in the Divisional Labour Commissioner Office at Rayagada. The team members conducted spot visits to the villages in Chandrapur and Muniguda blocks and found that serious fraud had been done.
A few cases can be cited as examples of the scam led by the DLO Sahu. Susat Suna, D/o- Gajendra Suna, Indira Pada, Ambadola, Muniguda bearing Labour ID card No-ODRGD001096061, Adhaar Card no-988099968502 lady died twice with false death certificates and forged documents manufactured by DLO Sahoo. Susat died on 10.622 at Vijaiwada, AP on 10.6.22; but Sahoo registered Susat on 17-11-2023, arranged a death certificate dated 27-11-23 & disbursed Rs.2 lakhs as death benefit to her nominee Surat Bag mentioning him as her father in one place and husband in another place in the death benefit claim. In a similar case Harihar Sabar from Village-Nauduguda, Chandrapur, who is 79 years old, died twice with false certificates and many other forged documents raised by DLO Sahoo. Interestingly he died the same day of registration as a construction labourer. His nominee son claimed that he never got any money.
Sahoo used absurd phone numbers like 10 zeros, 10 ones through which she verified the details of nominees for death benefit. SFFJ team came to know that there are several cases where the construction labourers have died within 3 days of the registration. There is even a case where the labour had died on the same day of registration. Documents were tampered & forged by the officer where Adhar Cards, Death Certificates, etc were manipulated. Nominees were given double payment with same name and Adhar numbers. 32 Nominees having same phone numbers, ie, 6371191612 & 8249067068 were given death benefits of Rs.2 lakhs each. A rough estimate by the SFFJ team mentions in their investigation report that the total financial scam amounts to around Rs.80 crores as around death benefits to 4000 nominees have been paid since the Ex-DLO Sahoo joined in the said post during 2019.
SFFJ team also mentions in its inquiry report that passwords of present collector and his predecessor have been hacked, which has led to ghost payments to around 400 construction labourers. All the illegal activities and fraud were done at the direction of DLO Jasmine S Sahoo. There was no proper check and verification of the benefits claimed by various labourers under schemes of OB & OCWW Board by the inquiry officers like Assistant Labour Officer and Rural Labour Inspectors. Proper procedures were not at all followed. Sahoo pulled the data out of user IDs of inquiry officers and herself did everything by bypassing the inquiring officers thereby violating the procedures. She almost ceased the powers of inquiry officers and kept them idle. The applications pulled by DLO were processed from her ID & verified within 2 hours which directly implies premature verification and sanction of government funds, which were misutilized with malafide intention by Sahoo.
She was using two peons and one DEO in her office to help her in several tainted activities and kept the verifying officers idle. Death of registered labourers within a month of registration and government fund disbursement within the same month without proper nominee verification was a serious violation by her. Mobile numbers of nominee who had never ever visited nor received the death benefit but still the numbers were given as the nominee’s mobile number. Registration were done on-line at Jana Seva Kendra(JSK) where required documents were not uploaded. In many cases, the JSK proprietors were involved in massive corruption being directed by Sahoo. Registrations were done in a hurry burry after the deaths of the labourers leading to huge corruption and scam. Bank kiosks were used by DLO Sahoo and her associates to do these fraudulent activities. So, a racket involving health personnels including doctors, bank kiosks, officials working under Sahoo and her higher authorities, jana seva kendras and a few brokers has meticulously worked to make this scam successful.
Interestingly, Sahu was also suspended at her previous assignment as DLO at Bhadrak District Labour Office for demanding bribe from trade unions.
In the mean time, vigilance sleuths have hounded divisional labour office to get any other clue. Vigilance Inspector Tarulata Behera said that the investigation might take a long time as the fund bungling is huge. Rayagada Collector Manoj Satyawan Mahajan has constituted a high level committee to track the huge swindling of money and fix responsibility of this corruption. SFFJ team has demanded arrest & dismissal of this tainted officer and recovery of the appropriated money from her to the govt exchequer and finally render justice to those poor & genuine nominees by transferring the scheduled amount in a transparent manner.
