Fake beneficiaries, trucks on paper: Internal auditor points to big gaps in MP’s ICDS ration

For the report, the auditors reviewed THR component of ICDS distributed to 11.98 lakh beneficiaries —24% of total beneficiaries — and found that in 2020-21, ration worth Rs 110.83 crore was distributed to fake beneficiaries.

As part of THR, raw ingredients or pre-cooked packets are distributed to beneficiaries — children between eight months and three years, pregnant and lactating mothers and Out-of-school Adolescent Girls (OOSAG).

Shah said: “While the report pointed out that trucks shown for distribution of THR were registered as other vehicles, MP Agro [which undertakes distribution of ration] in a written reply had clarified that it was a clerical error and trucks were used for the distribution. Similarly, in April this year, the Centre, based on recommendation of MP government, had stopped THR distribution to out-of-school adolescent girls. It was decided that instead of giving them THR, those coming to schools should be given midday meals.”

According to the 36-page internal report, on verification at anganwadi centres, only three adolescent girls were found to be registered across 49 anganwadi centres in eight districts, as opposed to the state’s MIS portal, where 63,748 girls were registered, of whom ration was ostensibly distributed to 29,104 adolescent girls.

The Centre had earlier urged the state WCD Department to conduct a baseline survey by April 2018 to identify OOSAGs. With the baseline survey not completed by February 2021, the WCD Department instead estimated the figure at 36.08 lakh.

However, the report noted, the Education Department had estimated only 9,000 OOSAGs in 2018-19. The report said WCD Department finally accepted that the figure had been inflated by around 5.5 lakh.

WCD Department is under supervision of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan since 2020, when BJP leader and former WCD minister, Imarti Devi, was dropped as minister following her defeat in by-polls that year.

Shah said, “After the ministry was taken over by the Chief Minister, a decision was taken to weed out all fictitious beneficiaries and bring in transparency. The first rounds of meetings with an international external agency have been held. With their help, the department will bring in transparency and increase accountability.”

The report also pegged the “fake production of THR” at Rs 58 crore, noting that six plants involved in production of ration — at Badi, Dhar, Rewa, Mandla, Sagar and Shivpuri — supplied 821.558 metric tonnes of THR, costing Rs 4.95 crore, despite non-availability of stock at the time challan was issued.

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The report said 1,125.64 metric tonnes of THR costing Rs 6.94 crores was distributed through trucks, but during verification of the registered vehicles it was found that these trucks were registered as motorcycles, cars, autos and tankers. In some cases, the purported trucks did not exist in the database.

The auditors have reported other irregularities, including that they came across 2,865 packets of THR in Shivpuri and Sagar districts, while the packets were shown as “distributed” in the records.