Fake Labor Card Crackdown Leads to 85% Decrease in Scholarship Applications

After the labour department’s scrutiny on the fake labour cards, it has witnessed a drastic plunge of over 85% in the number of scholarship applications from the children of the construction workers. According to the official data, while the number of applications was 11.13 lakh last year, it dropped to 1.6 lakh this year.

Labour Minister Santosh Lad has attributed the reduction in applications to three major reasons. “Firstly, we have cracked down on lakhs of bogus cards, thus weeding out fake beneficiaries. Secondly, the applications have been Aadhar-seeded and therefore it’s taking some time for processing them. Finally, a department notification which cautions stringent action against fake beneficiaries could also have deterred them.”

Last year, as the department received a record number of applications, it had to reduce the scholarship amount. On its decision, the labour department stood firm with the knowledge that lakhs of fake labour cards were made during COVID-19.

Record Beneficiaries Received Scholarships Last Year

According to the official data, as many as 9.61 lakh beneficiaries received scholarships, however, trade unions had filed their complaint in the High Court for the restoration of full scholarship amount as in 2021. Post this, further to the central government orders, the scholarship amounts for classes 1-5, 6-7 and 8 were increased from 1,100, 1,250 and 1,350 respectively to Rs 1,800 per year.

In contrast to the trade union’s expectation to increase the scholarship amounts, the labour minister said that it was not feasible to take drastic decisions while they are bound by the guidelines from the Supreme Court and the central government. However, to expand the benefit of scholarship accessibility to more genuine beneficiaries, the department is planning to extend the deadline of November 30 further. Whether the scholarship amount will be increased, is still under discussion.

While the crackdown on the fake labour cards will help the scholarship amounts reach the genuine beneficiaries, Karnataka Building and Construction Workers Federation’s general secretary Mahantesh K highlighted that many genuine workers had also lost their membership in the process.

“As per the law, a person should have worked as a construction worker for 90 days a year to avail of the benefits. Thus, a worker can do other work during the remaining time. However, officials have considered them non-construction workers on several occasions and denied them scholarship benefits,” he added.

Also read:

PMC Receives Over 13,000 Scholarship Applications

Scholarship Scam Targets Parents of TN School Students

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