LUCKNOW: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has started releasing provident fund, insurance and pension benefits to the families of employees who died in the Aliganj commercial building fire on June 22. The fire claimed 15 lives.An inquiry found that the deceased were employees of Headhoppers Studios Pvt Ltd and not students, as initially reported. Of the 15 victims, 13 were EPFO members, while two were outside the provident fund scheme because their salaries exceeded the prescribed limit.EPFO’s Lucknow office activated its Regional Industrial Accident Monitoring Cell to identify eligible members and process claims.Officials contacted the families directly, helped them arrange documents and coordinated the process so they did not have to make repeated visits to government offices.So far, benefits have been released to the dependents of eight deceased employees. These include provident fund, Employee Deposit Linked Insurance benefits of around Rs 5-6 lakh and the maximum pension applicable in death cases.Two of the remaining five cases are being processed due to technical issues. The other three cases involve families living in different states or cities. EPFO is coordinating with the concerned offices to complete the formalities.Officials also visited families living in Lucknow and Kanpur to hand over copies of Pension Payment Orders.Regional PF commissioner-I Ashwini Kumar Gupta said, “Providing social security benefits to affected families on time is our priority.” He added that the remaining cases would be settled on priority after completion of formalities.
