The Uttar Pradesh department of Social Welfare has decided to introduce changes in the software employed in managing money transactions of various welfare schemes, after cases of mushrooming fake accounts were reported.

The state government is also gearing up to take action against 70-odd employees of the district social welfare offices for their alleged involvement in irregularities.

Principal Secretary (Social Welfare) Prem Narain said: “The department was using a software to store details of all the beneficiaries of the old age pension scheme. Besides the scholarships for SC/ST, this is the only other scheme that has been computerised. Our probe revealed several flaws in the software, which made the system vulnerable to frauds and anomalies.”

It was found that small changes in details of beneficiaries could be used for creating new accounts and enlisting them in the list of beneficiaries.

“Here is a sample. A beneficiary Ramlal has been spelt as Ramlal in one account and Ram Lal in another. Hence, two accounts are created by minor changes in spelling. The software, meanwhile, reads this as two accounts and the money, meant for one, is transferred to both the accounts,” said an official with the department.

Another method used to forge accounts is adding the caste name with the maiden name. “Ram Avatar became Ram Avatar Pasi in another account, thereby having two accounts running on his name. The original account holder may even not be aware of this,” added the official.

The department has now asked the National Informatics Centre in Uttar Pradesh to ensure a foolproof method for managing records.

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