Accused Virendra Kumar Joshi arrested, bank account seized, recovery action being taken
Anganwadi worker Vedmati Joshi dismissed
Project Officer Ms. Jyoti Mathrani and Anganwadi Supervisor Mrs. Prabha Netam suspended
Clarification to the then District Program Officer
Raipur 23 December 2024: Mahtari Vandan Yojana is an ambitious scheme of Chhattisgarh state. The scheme is being implemented with the aim of eliminating gender discrimination, inequality with women in the state, bringing continuous improvement in health and nutrition levels, promoting economic self-reliance and empowerment and strengthening their decision-making role in the family. To ensure that the scheme is implemented in a transparent manner in the state and only eligible female beneficiaries get the benefit of the scheme, the Women and Child Development Department is working vigilantly and strict action is being taken immediately on receipt of information about such cases in which fake applications have been made to avail the benefits of the scheme in an incorrect manner. The information circulated through social media, in which the news has been circulated that the amount of Mahtari Vandan Yojana has been deposited in Sunny Leone’s account, is not correct. In fact, the amount of Mahtari Vandan has not been paid in Sunny Leone’s bank account, but this is an act done by a person named Virendra Kumar Joshi in collusion at the local level, by applying in the name of Sunny Leone and entering his Aadhaar and other information, with the aim of illegally obtaining government money.
In fact, Virendra Kumar Joshi has applied in the name of Sunny Leone through the worker of Anganwadi Center Talur in the Anganwadi Center Talur of Bastar development block of Bastar district by committing fraud and has entered his Aadhaar number and his bank account information as other information in that application. The responsibility of testing and verification of each application was to be done by the committee formed at the village level, which was to be done by the village in-charge / ward in-charge and Anganwadi worker. After this, the documents entered in the portal were to be verified by the Anganwadi worker in the first verification and by the supervisor in the second verification and approved by the project officer. In this case, Anganwadi worker Vedmati Joshi, who is Virendra Kumar Joshi’s neighbour, verified the application made by Virendra Kumar Joshi in the name of Sunny Leone on the online portal without checking the facts. Similarly, the supervisor also verified this application without checking, due to which the amount was paid to this beneficiary with a fake name in the form of DBT in the State Bank account linked to the Aadhaar number given by him. Action has been taken to dismiss the concerned Anganwadi worker Vedmati Joshi for serious negligence in this matter. Action has been taken to suspend the supervisor Mrs. Prabha Netam and the project officer Ms. Jyoti Mathrani and a clarification has also been issued to the then District Program Officer. Also, an FIR has been lodged against Virendra Kumar Joshi and he has been arrested and action is being taken to recover the amount paid by seizing his bank account.
The government intends that eligible women can get the benefit of the scheme, hence all the eligible beneficiaries who have applied have been included in the scheme. Detailed provisions have been made to implement the scheme, in which separate ID/password was provided to each field officer while developing online software to receive application forms under the scheme. In the same sequence, the concerned Anganwadi worker was also provided ID/password. After receiving applications in the prescribed format from the beneficiaries under the scheme, the application forms were entered in the online portal by the Anganwadi worker and the village in-charge and the documents were uploaded after checking the attached documents. There is a provision for verification of applications registered in the software through village committee at the first level and thereafter by Anganwadi worker and after that the responsibility of second verification was assigned to the concerned sector supervisor so that verification could be done at two levels. After verification, the provisional list was published by the committee constituted at ward/panchayat level and this list was pasted at public places like Anganwadi Centre, Gram Panchayat etc. and villagers were given the opportunity to examine this list and file claim or objection against those who made wrong applications.
For the resolution of received claims and objections, provision has been made for resolution by the committee constituted at the child development project level and after receiving claims and objections, more than 12000 wrong applications were rejected. After resolution of claims and objections, the final list was prepared and published. Even after determining the above procedures, in order to prevent such fake applications from being received, field officials were continuously instructed to take action for their verification and about 15 thousand wrong applications were identified and rejected. In the final list, 70,26,352 applicants have also been verified from various available data at the state level and Aadhaar verification has been done by sending them to NPP for Aadhaar authentication. Therefore, the statement that 50 percent of the applicants are fake is completely wrong. The department has, from time to time, carried out verification at the field level, searched through software and identified more than 15000 wrong beneficiaries and excluded them from the benefit list. The list of beneficiaries is reflected on the ID of each Anganwadi centre.
The Mahtari Vandan Yojana has greatly benefited the women of the state, such as the women have used this amount for spending on the health and nutrition of their children and themselves, saving and opening Sukanya Samriddhi accounts and depositing them in the name of their daughters, for the education of their children, for meeting their daily needs and for starting their own business, there are many examples of women empowerment. Adequate security measures have been taken while implementing the Mahtari Vandan Yojana. The applications for the process are received at the level of Anganwadi worker and village/ward in-charge and the application along with all the documents is filled on the online portal by the Anganwadi worker and village in-charge. There was also a provision for the applicants to apply online automatically. The department is constantly taking information about the authenticity of the beneficiaries at every level. Instructions have been issued from time to time. As a result of this, information about the deceased beneficiaries is also being collected and they are being removed from the benefit list, as of now, more than 21 thousand beneficiaries have been removed from the benefit list due to their death. Thus, the department is continuously taking prompt action to implement the scheme.
