Arun Singh
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 21: With thousands of Educational Assistance cases already pending with the Jammu and Kashmir Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (JKBOCWWB), the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer has made the procedure more cumbersome to avail the benefits for the workers.
Sources told Early Times that ever since the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) assumed the office, no case, processed by the workers, has been cleared from the office till date. "Despite clearing the cases of workers for the benefits of educational assistance, the new CEO has introduced unwarranted formalities for the workers which have created more problems for the workers who are generally illiterate," they said.
They alleged that new CEO overstepping his domain has introduced new rules for availing several schemes. "As per rules incorporated in the Act, the CEO is not a competent authority to add new rules on his own as any change in rules are made by the members of the board by holding a meeting," they added.
Earlier, for the registration of a worker only an affidavit given before the magistrate and letter by the local village head was sufficient but now CEO has added more formalities for registration. Now a worker has tosubmit affidavit from magistrate and then verification by the panch then same is verified by the concerned Tehsildar.
"If verification is done by the Block Development Officer then same verification has to be done from JE," they added. Earlier, the cases used to be cleared in one or two months but now they are taking too much time due to which the real purpose of benefit is defeated," they said.
Interestingly, new CEO has also added more formalities for the workers availing marriage assistance which is of Rs 20000 by directing concerned Labor Officer to attend the marriages of the beneficiaries personally. "This is very ridiculous as there is only one Labor Officer to deal all ceases. It has been seen that there were more than one marriages in one day, which was difficult for the Laobur officer to attend at a time," they added.
However the education cases, which can be settled by the concerned Assistant Labour Commissioner, are being dealt by the CEO. |
