Deposits `1.11 cr at PF office but withholds names of beneficiaries
Hyderabad: Owing to the delay in providing details of its employees (consolidate) to Regional Provident Fund office by the Urdu Academy, a total of 263 of them continue to be deprived of the EPF benefits amounting to more than Rs 1 crore now. Most of the employees who have been working in the last two or three decades have found that the higher officials of Urdu Academy have not shown concern about the problems faced by these consolidated employees. Even though PF was collected from the employees between 2005 and 2007, the funds were not deposited.
After the incident which came to the fore like a scam, the Urdu Academy was asked by PF officials to deposit the amount of Rs 24 lakh and with other penalties at the Provident Fund office. Later, when the matter was taken up by the higher levels, it came to light that the Urdu Academy was at default from 1982. “By March 2018, the default and prohibited orders forced the Urdu Academy to deposit Rs 1.11 crore with the intervention of the PF Commission. We have been running pillar to post for the last 11 years, even though the Urdu Academy has deposited the amount in the PF office, it has never declared the assesses to the PF office as it would have helped the long-drawn process to conclude and beneficiaries would have been indebted to the Academy,” said Md Omer, president, Urdu Academy Welfare Association.
Omer and other employees have made several representations to the Urdu Academy in the recent years, but of no avail. While on one side the employees are happy that the deposits, which include penalties and defaults have gone up by Rs 1.11 crore, they are apprehensive about receiving the amount. “We have fought our battle and took up the matter with the PF officials. It’s high time that the Urdu Academy forwards the details so that the beneficiaries get their dues. Some of them who are eligible for the benefits have already died. What more can we say when their family members are unable to avail the benefits of the deceased who had served for over two decades for the government institution,” he lamented.
BY Mohd Minhajuddin Khan