Verification still pending in districts that invented old-age,underage brides for benefits The Badal government invented the Shagun scheme in its manifesto for the 2007 polls,later,many in Punjab invented the brides. The Department of Welfare of SC and BC the nodal agency implementing the scheme,under which Rs 15,000 is provided to SC/BC,minority and EWS families on the marriage of a girl child had raised an annual bill of Rs 108 crore in 2010-11. Accordingly,its monthly estimate to the finance department this year was Rs 9 crore. However,after widespread bungling in the scheme forced the department to go online the money is now transferred through banking management system directly to the brides account the governments monthly bill has fallen by almost half to less than Rs 5 crore. Even after factoring in higher number of marriages in the peak season from October to February,it is likely to result in an annual saving of over Rs 30 crore. The number of applications itself reveals an interesting pattern. It was 58,235 in 2009-10 but fell to 44,945 in 2010-11 after an affidavit on income was made mandatory with the application. Again in 2011-12,the figure surged to 57,134 when the EWS families with annual income of Rs 27,000 in rural areas and Rs 30,000 in urban areas were also included in the scheme. Unable to foot the shagun high bill after spike in numbers,the finance department had last year ordered a verification of all pending cases of 2009-10 and 2010-11. While eight districts have completed the verification and genuine beneficiaries have received the shagun money,the districts which invented brides a large number of their cases were of fake or ineligible beneficiaries are still to complete it. Sample this: In Amritsar,over 7,579 applications of these two years are pending,of which,nearly 50 per cent are estimated to be ineligible. In Ludhiana,6,000 applications are pending,of which ineligible ones are expected to be as high as 80 per cent. In several other districts such as Tarn Taran (4,072 pending),Gurdaspur (5,950 pending),Ferozepur (8,000 pending),Faridkot (2,300 pending) and Mansa (2,354 pending),nearly 15 to 20 per cent cases are expected to be fake or ineligible. In creating brides,families and some district welfare officers showed great ingenuity. From old-aged brides married decades ago,underage bride not yet married,same bride applying twice,applying from more than one district to families with no girls and even no children pocketing shagun it had it all. Though some other districts have also reported ineligible or fake cases such as Barnala (591),Bathinda (140) and Muktsar (200),smaller districts were relatively honest and have also completed their verifications. Interestingly,owing to the pendency of last few years,in Bathinda,there are several instances in last two years of parents applying for and getting shagun money for their third daughter,otherwise not eligible under the scheme. The progress of the verification is tardy in these districts despite its being an agenda point in June 30 meeting of the chief minister with deputy commissioners,where all were asked to send a status report on ongoing verification within 15 days. Department of Welfare of SC and BC Director H S Nanda said that from April,every penny is being released on time. Now,with the scheme going online,fake and ineligible cases will be weeded out. Also,the new stipulation of not accepting applications beyond the date of marriage date applicable from July 1 will help streamline the entire system, he added.
