New Delhi, Jun 16 (IANS): The Delhi High Court has issued notices for reply to the Centre and the Delhi government on a petition for a CBI investigation into the "misappropriation" of the Rs 3,200 crore funds meant for construction workers in the city.

A division bench comprising Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar posted the matter for further hearing on July 2.

The Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers (DBOCW) Welfare Board was also issued the notice.

The court also impleaded the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch as a party and directed it to also file a reply on the petition filed by NGO Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Smriti Sansthan.

The petition, filed through advocates R Balaji and Yogesh Pachauri, also sought directions to the Delhi government to disburse funds to genuine construction workers.

The plea claimed a very deep-rooted nexus between trade unions and outsourced board employees to carry out large-scale illegal registration of non-construction workers as construction workers by charging huge amounts with the condition that they were paid 40-50 per cent of the benefit amount.

"According to some government officials, more than 80 per cent registrations have been carried out of non-construction workers and most of such beneficiaries own houses/flats in Delhi and are not genuine construction workers," the plea said.

These facts can be verified from the addresses mentioned in the sanctioning orders issued by Board Secretary's office, the plea said.

"It has been very shocking that the authorities/unions have registered lakhs of non-construction workers (some of them rickshaw-pullers, hawkers, factory workers, tailors, housewives etc) as construction workers solely to illegally pilfer the cess funds which is exclusively collected for the welfare of genuine construction workers," the petitioner told the court.

The plea sought directions for a probe by an independent agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as also directions to restrain authorities concerned from releasing cess funds to those not entitled to the same.