BOCW Mobile Lab Scheme (Punjab)

What is the BOCW Mobile Lab Scheme in Punjab?

BOCW Mobile Lab Scheme is a welfare scheme of the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board that takes diagnostic testing to the worker instead of waiting for the worker to reach a hospital. In the Board's own list of welfare schemes, published by the Department of Labour, Punjab, it appears as Welfare Scheme No. 13 in the fourteen-scheme document and as item 19 in the amended twenty-scheme list.

According to that document, the scheme provides a mobile lab for detection of silicosis and other diseases of registered construction workers and their family members, and where it is found that a beneficiary or a family member is suffering from silicosis, expenditure up to Rs 1.5 lakh incurred by the worker for the treatment of the disease shall be reimbursed by the Board.

The Board itself was constituted by Punjab Government notification S.O.17/C.A.27/96/S.18/2/2009 dated 30 April 2009 under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and its welfare schemes are approved under Rule 265 of the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Rules, 2008. Its funding comes principally from the cess levied and collected under the Cess Act, together with registration and contribution fees from workers.

Why does silicosis get its own scheme?

Silicosis is caused by breathing crystalline silica dust. The dust thrown up by stone cutting, drilling, sandblasting, tile and marble work, demolition and concrete grinding. It is irreversible, it progresses even after exposure stops, and it is routinely mistaken for tuberculosis in its early years. Construction workers who move from site to site rarely present for a chest X-ray until breathlessness has already cost them work.

That is the specific problem the mobile lab addresses. A laboratory that travels to the worksite and the labour chowk removes the two barriers that keep occupational lung disease undiagnosed in Punjab: distance and lost wages. The Rs 1.5 lakh reimbursement then follows detection, so that a diagnosis does not simply become a debt.

How much does the scheme pay?

Rs 1.5 lakh is the highest health-related ceiling in the Board's scheme book. For comparison, the Board's reimbursement scheme for serious ailments covers 16 listed diseases; including asbestosis, occupational cancer, occupational asthma, lead and benzene poisoning, toxic nephritis, cancer treatment, heart surgery and kidney transplant, at up to Rs 1 lakh, and the General Surgery Scheme covers any type of general surgery at up to Rs 50,000 once a financial year.

Who is eligible under the Mobile Lab Scheme?

You can be screened and can claim if:

• You are a registered beneficiary of the Punjab BOCW Welfare Board. Registration is open to construction workers aged 18 to 60 who have done building or other construction work in Punjab for at least 90 days in the last 12 months. The registration fee is Rs 25 once in a lifetime and the contribution is Rs 10 per month, for a registration term of one to five years at a time.
• Your contributions are up to date and your registration has not lapsed.
• The person screened is you or a family member as defined in Rule 2(t) of the Punjab BOCW Rules, 2008 — the husband or wife, minor sons including major sons who are insane or physically handicapped and unable to earn, unmarried daughters, and parents who are solely dependent on the building worker.
• Silicosis has been detected, for the reimbursement limb of the scheme.
• You have first exhausted the Rs 50,000 BPSSBY health card cover, where you hold a card.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not registered with the Board. An unregistered construction worker cannot apply for the reimbursement, and registration cannot be created after the diagnosis to cover treatment already taken.
• Your registration has lapsed because the Rs 10 monthly contribution stopped.
• The diagnosis is something other than silicosis. The Rs 1.5 lakh reimbursement is tied to silicosis; other conditions must be claimed under the Board's separate Rs 1 lakh scheme for serious ailments, if they appear on that list of 16.
• The BPSSBY cover has not been used first by a card holder.
• The patient falls outside the Rule 2(t) family, for example a married daughter, a sibling, or a parent who is not solely dependent on you.

How to apply under the Punjab BOCW Mobile Lab Scheme

1. Register with the Board first, if you have not. Fill Application Form No. 28 at a Sewa Kendra with the Rs 25 registration fee and the Rs 10 monthly contribution. Screening and reimbursement under the scheme are both limited to beneficiaries.
2. Get screened when the mobile lab visits. Watch for the camp announced by your area Labour Inspector, Labour Enforcement Officer or Assistant Labour Commissioner, and take your registration card. Family members can be screened too. Collect the screening report rather than leaving with only a verbal result.
3. Follow up the diagnosis at a government hospital if silicosis is indicated, so that the disease is confirmed and the treatment record is documented from the start.
4. Use the BPSSBY health card if you hold one, to take the free indoor treatment of up to Rs 50,000 per family per year in government and empanelled private hospitals. The scheme requires this benefit to be exhausted before the Board pays the balance.
5. Keep all treatment bills and get the expenditure verified by the Civil Surgeon of your district, as the Board requires for its health reimbursement schemes.
6. File the reimbursement claim at the nearest Sewa Kendra, which submits it on bocw.punjab.gov.in, or through the Labour Inspector or Labour Enforcement Officer of your area. Carry the registration card, Aadhaar, screening report, diagnosis, verified bills, dependency proof if the patient is a family member, and your bank passbook.
7. Take the acknowledgement with the application number and track it later.

How do you check the status of a claim?

1. Open bocw.punjab.gov.in.
2. Select Check your Scheme Application Status and log in with your beneficiary registration number.
3. If you registered offline and have no online registration number, generate it from the home page using your old registration number together with your Aadhaar number or your registered mobile number. The number is sent by SMS. If nothing is generated, get the registration form updated through a Sewa Kendra.

Applications for the Board's welfare schemes are verified by the committee constituted at sub-divisional level and approved by the Deputy Commissioner, after which the sanctioned list goes to the Board for direct transfer into the beneficiary's bank account.

Why do Mobile Lab Scheme claims fail?

• The worker was never registered, so the screening produced a diagnosis but no entitlement.
• Registration lapsed before the date of treatment because contributions stopped. Renewal, with penalty where applicable, is done through the challan facility on the portal, payable to the Punjab Construction Workers Welfare Board account, IFSC PUNB0324800.
• The diagnosis is not silicosis. Tuberculosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are often the actual finding and do not attract the Rs 1.5 lakh ceiling under this scheme.
• BPSSBY cover was not exhausted first by a health card holder.
• Bills not verified by the Civil Surgeon, or estimates submitted instead of paid receipts.
• Wrong bank details, which stop the direct transfer after sanction.

Where a claim is rejected by the sub-divisional committee, ask the sanctioning officer for the ground in writing. Under the Board's pension scheme rules, an appeal lies to the Secretary of the Board within 60 days, delay up to one year is condonable for satisfactory reasons, and no application is to be rejected without a personal hearing.

Where do you get help?

• Portal: bocw.punjab.gov.in: Welfare Schemes, Forms and Procedures, the HelpDesk link, the Telephone Directory of Board and Labour Department officers, and the FAQs page.
• Sewa Kendra: for registration, renewal and claim filing. The Board's portal is integrated with the Punjab Sewa portal.
• Area labour officer: Assistant Labour Commissioner, Labour-cum-Conciliation Officer, Labour Inspector or Labour Enforcement Officer, who also carry information about mobile lab camps in the district.

Screening under the scheme is a Board service, and the reimbursement reaches the beneficiary's own bank account by direct transfer. No agent is entitled to a fee for either.