Bhubaneswar, Jan. 20 -- The Orissa High Court has directed the State government to undertake a special audit of funds meant for construction workers and disbursal of the amount to the beneficiaries under the Building and Other Construction Workers' (Regulation of Employment & Conditions of Services) Rules.

A division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice MS Raman has directed the concerned authorities to wrap up the special audit of all the amounts collected and disbursed under the BOCW Act in six months.

During the hearing, Mrinalini Padhi appearing for the Odisha State Legal Services Authority pointed out that by the end of December 2022, a balance of Rs 579,49,41,575 remains unutilized. This was not disputed by Ishwar Mohan...