Voicing "shock" over money meant for the welfare of construction workers going "somewhere else", the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to file an audit report as to how crores of rupees for the purpose was spent.
It observed that there is no record as to how Rs 5,000 crore was spent and directed the CAG to file the report within two weeks.
"Out of the Rs 26,000 crore, Rs 5,000 crore have been spent. We do not know where the money has been spent. You have to ensure that it is not spent for tea or lunch," a bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh.
"A lot of money is involved in this. It is supposed to go to the poorest people of the country. It is not going to them. It is going somewhere else. It is a very important matter. The money should reach to the poorest people," the bench said.
Singh told the bench that the money was lying with the state governments and "it is not that the money has disappeared".
The court, however, observed that what has been conveyed to it was shocking and the Centre must find a way to deal with the situation.
"What has been told to us is very shocking. You have to find out a solution. It is a matter of 26,000 crore," the bench told the ASG.
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Senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves, who appeared for the petitioner, claimed that a huge amount of money was transferred and it was being used for "all kinds of sundry purposes".
"Roughly, how much will be the amount," the bench asked a CAG official, who was present in the court.
Responding to the court's query, the official said the total amount may be around Rs 28,000 crore.
When the apex court asked the official about the Rs 5,000 crore which has been spent, he said, "We will look into it and give an audit report."
The bench then fixed the matter for further hearing on May 5.
The CAG had earlier told the court that it would file an affidavit giving the latest status with regard to the audit of the funds meant for welfare of construction workers across the country.
The court had in 2015 expressed displeasure over non-utilisation of a whopping Rs 26,000 crore by the Centre and various state governments, saying it cannot get worse than that.
It had also said it was "ridiculous" that the money meant for these workers was spent on the 'babus' and advertisements.
The court was hearing the PIL filed by an NGO, National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour, alleging that the statutory cess levied from real estate firms for the welfare of construction workers was not being utilised properly as there was no mechanism to identify the beneficiaries for extending the benefit.
It had earlier asked the Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments to "file their submissions on affidavits with regard to collection and utilisation of the amounts and proposals for utilisation within two weeks".
The order was passed after certain facts were brought the court's notice, including that Haryana had over the years collected Rs 1314.86 crore under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act but disbursed only Rs 52 crore and even the details of which were unavailable.
An amicus curiae, who was assisting the court, had said that Rajasthan had collected Rs 588.36 crore but disbursed only Rs 59.45 crore, the details of which were also not available.
