Audit Finds Nearly 2,000 Manipulated Marriage Records in Odisha Welfare Scheme

A draft audit of the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board has uncovered close to 2,000 cases in which marriage records appear to have been manipulated so that ineligible claimants could draw marriage assistance under the Nirman Shramik scheme.

The findings form part of a draft report on the implementation of the PAReSHRAM and Nirman Shramik portals in the State, which is expected to be included in the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit report for 2024-25.

According to the draft, an analysis of the legacy database threw up 676 marriage certificates whose registration dates preceded the dates of the marriages themselves. In five sampled districts, 126 registration dates were similarly found to be earlier than the corresponding marriage dates.

After the Nirmal Shramik portal became operational, 1,257 such cases were detected across Odisha, along with 333 in the sampled districts. These cases led to the disbursement of ₹6.29 crore. The audit attributed the lapses to flaws in system design and the absence of validation checks, which allowed ineligible individuals to exploit the scheme in violation of marriage registration protocols.

The report also points to poor record-keeping at the Block Development Office in Khariar, where marriage certificate issue registers were kept with blank pages and without the signatures of recipients. It notes that 586 marriage benefits worth ₹2.90 crore were disbursed at the office between 2020 and 2025, but details of the certificates issued were not available.

Under the scheme, the board provides ₹50,000 as assistance for the marriage of an unmarried registered female beneficiary, or for the marriage of two unmarried daughters above 18 years of a registered construction worker. The board had accumulated over ₹4,000 crore by 2024.

The Orissa Hindu Marriages and Registration Rules, 1960, require parties to a duly solemnised marriage to submit an application in Form B before the Registrar within 30 days of solemnisation for compulsory registration.

The audit findings follow an earlier report, based on the same draft, that 2,487 construction workers were declared dead and death assistance was paid to their nominees even as the workers continued to draw subsidised foodgrain under the National Food Security Act and the State Food Security Scheme after their recorded deaths.