With worst sex ratio,Tran Taran ranks high in pocketing Shagun money

Leading the six districts in terms of applications till last year was also relatively well-off Amritsar,the home district of Minister for Welfare of SC and BC,Gulzar Singh Ranike,whose department runs the scheme.

Ironically,in just one village of the district,Fatapur,28 out of 52 families who got the shagun amount have this year been found to be fictitious. Among those who pocketed the money are families where no marriage took place or was solemnised years ago,the annual income was in lakhs of rupees,the shagun was availed twice for one daughter. Even those families got the money,which had no daughters to marry or had no children! In sharp contrast,Sangrur district which has highest number of BPL families and a better sex ratio,put in far lesser number of applications.

As the Opposition on Wednesday cornered the government on the issue of pendency in grant of shagun money since 2009,Ranike said the pendency was on account of the ongoing verification by the deputy commissioners of applications received under the scheme in the years 2009-10 and 2010-11.

According to the Directorate of Welfare of SC and BC,of the 72,000 pending cases in 2009-10 and 2010-11,12,000 have been verified but the remaining 60,000 from the six districts of Amritsar,Tarn Taran,Ludhiana,Jalandhar,Faridkot and Gurdaspur are yet to be completed. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has now set July 31 deadline on the floor of the House to verify the cases,adding that the government wants to ensure that ‘shagun’ reaches the family before the marriage.

The slow pace of verification in the six districts with high number of fictitious beneficiaries has revealed the nexus between district welfare officers,tehsil officers,local politicians,village sarpanches and the middlemen. In both the genuine and fictitious cases,the cheques were being given after a cut (commission) of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 and in many cases the cheques never reached the beneficiaries.

With the state logging on to Online Managment System (OMS) since January 2012,the Directorate of Welfare of SC and BC says the number of applications has come down drastically. “The online transfer will only be possible after the name,date of birth,residence,caste,income details and IFC code of the girl’s bank account matches with the application. It would also detect duplicacy of beneficiaries. Now the discretion of the district welfare officer has come down from 100 per cent to nil,” said Director,Welfare of SC and BC,HS Nanda.

The number of applications,the directorate said,touched 70,000 in one year. “Though we cannot put a percentage to it,the number is likely to fall significantly owing to the online system,” Nanda added.

In a nutshell
The scheme

Rs 15,000 is given as shagun given by the state government to SC/BC,minority and poor families with annual income of up to Rs 30,000 on the marriage of their daughters.

Most applicants from

Amritsar,Tarn Taran,Ludhiana,Jalandhar,Faridkot,Gurdaspur

Who got the money

Families where no marriage took place

Families where marriage was solemnised years ago

Families with annual income running in lakhs of rupees

Shagun availed twice for one daughter.

Families that had no daughters to marry or had no children pending cases

Directorate of Welfare of SC and BC says of the 72,000 pending cases in 2009-10 and 2010-11,12,000 have been verified