Gurugram: When Haryana Labour Minister Anil Vij ordered a routine audit of the state’s Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board earlier this year, he probably didn’t expect to uncover what may be one of the biggest welfare frauds in recent times.
Of the nearly 6 lakh work slips issued across 13 districts between August 2023 and March 2025, over 5.46 lakh, more than 91 percent, turned out to be fake, Vij told The Print.
Out of 2.21 lakh labour registrations, a mere 14,240 were found legitimate after physical verification, he added.
The rest? A vast network of ‘phantom’ workers, fraudulent registrations, and systematic looting of government schemes designed to help some of Haryana’s most vulnerable workers.
According to Vij, the preliminary estimate of the suspected scam: Rs 1,500 crore.
The inquiry report from the remaining nine districts is yet to come.
Vij told The Print Tuesday he suspended three labour inspectors in July after an inquiry carried out by the secretary of the Haryana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Panchkula, found them allegedly responsible for approving fake work slips or certificates.
“They were found to have verified thousands of workers in a short span of time, which raised my doubt,” he added
After this, an inquiry was ordered in all districts, to be carried out by the respective deputy commissioners. Reports from 13 districts have arrived so far, pointing to a scam, Vij added.
Asked if any FIR has been lodged by his department, Vij said he has requested Chief Minister Nayab Saini to get the matter investigated. It is up to him to refer the matter to the police, or some other state or central agency, he said.
Vij said that several aspects of the “scam” still remain unanswered that need a thorough probe: who were the middlemen who orchestrated the mass registrations, how much did they charge desperate applicants and gullible villagers for fake documentation, were contractors complicit in providing fraudulent work certificates, how long this had been going on for?
More fundamentally, how did the fraud scale to this magnitude without raising alarms?
Vij said that all these questions will be answered once the case is investigated.
The modus operandi was brazen in its simplicity. In several instances, entire villages were registered as construction workers. Among those registered as construction workers were farmers, shopkeepers, housewives, students, people who had never laid a brick in their lives, Vij said.
These ‘phantom workers’ then received work slips certifying they had completed 90 days of construction work, making them eligible for a buffet of welfare schemes. On average, each “worker” could claim benefits worth Rs 2.5 lakh for maternity assistance, education grants, marriage aid, pensions, accident compensation, and many more reasons.
“Those who are not eligible are availing benefits. This is outright loot, causing the government a financial loss running into hundreds of crores,” Vij said, announcing his recommendation to the chief minister to order a high-level investigation.
How the racket worked
The alleged scam appears to have thrived on a combination of lax oversight, collusion, and the digitisation of work slips without adequate verification mechanisms.
Under the welfare board’s rules, construction workers must prove at least 90 days of work through employers’ verification. The work slip, a document certifying this employment, is the gateway to all benefits.
The investigation, which began about four months ago, has so far covered 13 districts: Karnal, Rewari, Nuh, Mahendragarh, Gurugram, Jhajjar, Palwal, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonipat, Panchkula, Sirsa and Kaithal.
In these districts alone, 5,99,758 work slips were issued, but only 53,249 survived scrutiny, said the minister.
Initial red flags appeared during probes in Hisar, Kaithal, Jind, Sirsa, Faridabad and Bhiwani. Following this, Vij ordered all deputy commissioners to form district committees comprising labour department officials and three other officers to conduct physical verification.
Benefits meant for real workers
The schemes at the heart of this fraud were well-intentioned. Haryana’s construction workers, one of the most precarious segments of the workforce, are entitled to an impressive array of benefits once registered with the welfare board.
A woman worker gets Rs 36,000 as maternity benefit, and her husband Rs 21,000 for paternity leave. Their children receive education assistance ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 annually, merit scholarships up to Rs 51,000, and full reimbursement for technical courses. There’s Rs 1.01 lakh assistance for marrying daughters, Rs 50,000 for a female worker’s own marriage, and Rs 50,000 assistance to buy an electric scooter.
Medical aid, disability pensions, old-age pensions, accident compensation reaching Rs 5.15 lakh—the list is exhaustive. There’s even reimbursement for pilgrimages and visits to one’s native place.
For genuine construction workers, many of whom migrate seasonally and live hand-to-mouth, these benefits can be transformative.
As verification continues, Vij has pulled the emergency brake on new registrations at SARAL centres in Haryana have been told to stop accepting applications.
SARAL (Simple, All Inclusive, Real Time, Action Oriented, Long lasting portal) centres are a forum in Haryana where citizens can apply for 545 Schemes and Services pertaining to 44 departments on a single platform, and avail their services.
The Right to Service timelines have been suspended. Grievance platforms like CM Window, Jan Samvad, Centralised Public Grievances Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), Haryana Human Rights Commission and Haryana Right to Services Commission, have been notified.
Existing pensioners haven’t been affected, and claims under death, accident and funeral assistance are being processed on priority. But for everyone else, the board is essentially frozen while investigators sift through the wreckage.
The minister has been emphatic about accountability. “There will be no compromise on corruption at any level and strict action will be ensured against those found guilty,” Vij said.
That includes not just the ‘phantom beneficiaries’ but potentially officials who allegedly enabled the fraud, the inspectors who didn’t inspect, the verifiers who didn’t verify, the board members whose appointments Vij said were themselves irregular.
This isn’t the first time Haryana’s welfare machinery appears to have been gamed. In 2016, a social security pension scam involving fake disability certificates was unearthed.
More recently, the Haryana government had told the Vidhan Sabha that it has cancelled BPL cards to nearly 11 lakh families, saying they had faked lower income to claim benefits available to those living below the poverty line.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Is it wrong if I call for life imprisonment ? I have been screaming from top of my lungs and even wrote comments over here (which sometimes get deleted because the print likes to censor like the government does) that the real problem are the bureaucrats.
We can remove these politicians through elections but we can’t do anything about this unelected officials.
Serious punishments is the only way to go. Either capital or life imprisonment for even the smallest amount of corruption will create a deterrence.
We need to shift focus on these “babus”. Call them out, shame them, their families. Let them suffer.
Also reforms. Remove the red tape culture in this country. We are doing it but I don’t think most people are happy with the pace.