Balasore: Following an order from Central EPF Commissioner, a team from Bhubaneswar EPF office started a probe into alleged misappropriation of EPF and ESI funds deducted from the salaries of sanitation workers in Balasore municipality.
The sanitation workers had long been staging protests and demanding an investigation into the alleged financial wrongdoing.
PF officer Rashmiranjan Das and his associates visited the municipality office Friday and enquired municipality executive officer Shree Sarkar about the irregularity.
The PF officer had examined various documents of the contractual agencies. He said that the investigation will be completed in a week.
Sanitation workers including Bhagwan Behera, Manoj Behera and Bhagi Nayak were present during the investigation.
Since 2016, FPF and ESI money is being deducted from workers’ salaries. Actually, how much money has been deposited in the accounts of sanitation workers will be known after document verification.
Contractual sanitation workers said their EPF and ESI funds could be over Rs 3 crore.
If the investigation detects any irregularity, 300 poor workers will get at least Rs 1akh each as EPF.
Besides, it was alleged that 55 workers had not worked in sanitation, but their salaries had been embezzled through forged documents.
PNN
