The report of the Hindi daily Hindustan from Patna on a PF scam of Rs 22 crore in BISCOMAUN has created uproar, even as those in the know of things dismiss it as a case of overzealous reporting. “When there was no salary for more than 17 years, how would PF come”, they argue.
Hindustan report mentions that while PF was being deducted, it was not being paid in the employees’ accounts. The report also talks of FIR and institution of case under Economic Offence wing.
Responding to the report, the current Chairman of Biscomaun Sunil Kumar Singh said “since 1985 to 2002, the Bicomaun was under Administrator’s rule; in which several top-notch IAS officials of the state of the time headed the cooperative federation; if the logic of the report were to be believed it would mean filing of FIRs against giants like R K Singh, Vyasji, Amitabh Verma and many others”. There are around 35 IAS officers in the list, he added.
“I had just matriculated and was looking for college admission when this so called scam began. But the simple thing to be understood is the fact that when there was no salary for the employees in those days from where would the money for PF come”; Sunil asked.
“In fact, we filed a case in High Court in 2015 in which we have demanded Rs 300 crore from the state govt which once realized would be utilized as arears of salary and PF contribution of the employees”, he explained. “The matter is still pending in the Patna High Court”, he added giving case number and other details.
The Chairman of Biscomaun also clarified that in the past, PF was being managed, not only in BICOMAUN but in many other cooperative organizations in the country, through Trusts. These trusts used to be run by employees themselves with little say of the Board in the matter, he stated.
There was one such Trust conceived in 1956 by the BISCOMAUN employees also, in which we recently prevailed and ensured the money be deposited in the PF.
When the situation turned better we not only began to give salaries on time but also contributed PF to the accounts of employees. For the last four years we have been giving salaries on first day of the month and PF is also deposited simultaneously in the employees’ accounts, he explained.
Later BISCOMAUN also mailed a press release explaining the PF case in detail. The release said that such a misleading report demoralizes the hard-working and honest staff-members of the co-op organization which has been doing a great job of fulfilling the needs of farmers of the state for the last 30 years.