Bastar: A rather unusual scene of welfare fraud has come up in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, where a man is actually reported to have received benefits under the Mahtari Vandan Yojana (Mother’s Respect Scheme) by the names of renowned actors of adult films, Sunny Leone and Johnny Sins. Local man Virendra Joshi has been arrested after the authorities found that he had received payments under the project for the last ten months.
During police inquiry, Joshi claimed innocence, stating that someone had used his account details to frame him. This fraud occurrence was disclosed on Sunday in the Talur Panchayat of the Bastar block state that it sparked political thirty-two and administration’s actions.
The ruling BJP was trying to evade accusations initially, but a party spokesperson made an unusual statement through which he said maybe someone’s converts in Chhattisgarh are such names. However, the Congress Party, which is in opposition, openly attacked the BJP-led state government and called for a thorough investigation of this matter.
After the recent developments, administrative offices carried out an inquiry in which they confirmed that no person by the name of Sunny Leone was indicated as a beneficiary in the territory. The inquest tracked the money to Joshi’s bank account and consequently apprehended him.
The Congress Party charged the authority with implementing the scheme poorly, which they concluded was because of the failure of the verification procedure. “The Mahtari Vandan Yojana mandates applications to be received at the panchayat level, then followed by two-staged verification,” stated a Congress spokesperson. “Such a fraud is impossible without local officials colluding who are responsible for data verification and entry.”
The welfare project, aimed at helping mothers in Chhattisgarh, contains a multi-stage verification process at both panchayat and block levels before the benefits get to women’s eligible accounts. The opposite side is asking for a whole-state investigation as they believe this might be only a beginning of a bigger problem.
“This incident brings to light the infallibility of the project’s activities all over the state’,” asserted a Congress Party official. “How many more fictional beneficiaries who cheat in that way are there getting money?”
The case, along with its inherent weaknesses in the benefits distribution scheme, has attracted rafts of suggestions for better verification mandates. Local government, which has intimated its intention to widen the inquiry into the beneficiaries’ list, is involved in the scheme.
The case has also raised the question of whether personal documentation is well secured and if it can be utilized for identity theft in welfare schemes, which have raised discussions about the need for reforms in the benefit distribution system.