East Singhbhum identifies fake MMMSY beneficiaries

Large-scale anomalies have come to light in the Jharkhand government's flagship cash incentive scheme for women, Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojna (MMMSY), in East Singhbhum district, with the discovery of hundreds of fake beneficiaries who do not reside in the panchayat areas from where they have been listed and many linked to a single bank account, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

- Debashish Sarkar

JAMSHEDPUR:

Recently, authorities discovered 174 women beneficiaries in Hedaljori panchayat, under the Ghatsila block of East Singhbhum district, who never lived in Hedaljori and were not listed in any official demographic records of the panchayat or block. Of the 409 women beneficiaries under MMMSY in Hedaljori, 174 beneficiaries under scrutiny belong to the Muslim community, despite there being no records of any minority community family in the panchayat, people familiar with the matter said. Similarly, in the Juri panchayat under Potka block, 14 beneficiaries, including one male, were found to be non-residents of Juri panchayat, with no trace of their families in the area. These beneficiaries also belong to the Muslim community.

"I was sent a list of 358 MMMSY beneficiaries in Juri panchayat by the administration. The list had 14 Muslim women and a man, Saddam Hussain, but there is only one Muslim family in our panchayat. Their mobile numbers were also found to be fake, and all of them had bank accounts in the same branch of SBI," said Suklal Sardar, Juri panchayat mukhiya.