Kanpur: After 362 ineligible candidates surfaced with regard to procurement of marriage grant under state’s ‘Shaadi Anudan Yojana’, district magistrate Kanpur Nagar Alok Tiwari had ordered lodging of an FIR.
The release of the grant in the accounts of the 362 applicants, however, is not yet done.
During the probe, it came to fore that many beneficiaries, who were shown as single were married women, besides in some other cases, parents received grants despite not having a daughter in the family.
The state government under ‘Shaadi Anudan Yojana’ spends Rs 20,000 on the wedding of the girl registered as beneficiary 90 days before her marriage.
In the last few years, there have been several instances of fraud with regard to procurement of marriage grants.
“Recently, an FIR against five such persons were lodged at the various police stations. Also, strict action against four ‘lekhpals’ in the form of their suspension was taken,” informed a senior district official.
“Earlier, there used to be an odd case of ineligible women seeking to marry at government expenses but this time the number was very high,” said social welfare department officer Amarjeet Singh.
He added, “This time there were nearly 550 such applicants. During screening, nearly 362 applicants were found to be ineligible for the scheme. Therefore, on the orders of the district magistrate, we are in the process of lodging a complaint in this regard at Nawabganj police station of the city. The disbursal of grant in the accounts of the 362 applicants has not yet been done.”