Following reports of irregularities in various social welfare schemes from several districts, the state government has ordered a statewide inquiry to verify the authenticity of the beneficiaries of the schemes.

The Department of Social Welfare has ordered the districts to submit a report by October 30 after conducting a physical verification of the beneficiaries and updating all the records.

This is the first time that a statewide probe is being conducted into the welfare schemes since they were launched in 1980s and 1990s.

The government disburses over Rs 2,200 crore under the welfare scheme head for various departments like Social Welfare department, Women and Child Development department and the Directorate of SC/ST Welfare.

Maximum irregularities have been reported in the old-age pension scheme, whereby a monthly amount of Rs 300 is given to people over 60 years who are in the BPL list.

In the last three months, at least 28 districts have reported large-scale anomalies, where either the beneficiaries were dead but the pension was still being drawn or under-age people were being given pension through fraudulent methods. Action has been taken against gram pradhans, district social welfare officers and bank officials.

“Since the time the disbursement of pension for the first quarter began in July, we have been receiving complaints from districts in eastern and central UP,” said Ram Bahadur, Director of Social Welfare.

After Sitapur, districts like Hardoi, Banda, Jhansi, Akbarpur and others have reported similar problems, he said. “While in some places, we are sending our own teams headed by our joint directors, in the others, the chief development officers have been asked to obtain reports through physical verification and open meetings of gram sabhas,” he added.

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