GUWAHATI: Assam Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma on Friday said the figure of 14 lakh ‘ghost beneficiaries’ in Anganwadis of the state was exaggerated.
Her assertion came a day after Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said in New Delhi that a recent state-level inquiry had revealed that there were 14 lakh “fake children” in the beneficiary list of Assam’s Anganwadis.
Brahma said the 14 lakh figure was given to the Central government by a former director in the department of social welfare, Assam, Meenakshi Sundaram.
“The figure is way above the actual number. He (Sundaram) gave the figure in a report submitted on August 10, two days ahead of his transfer from the department, without consulting any of us in the department, including me. I wonder where he got this number from,” she told TNIE.
The minister said that in Assam’s 62,000 Anganwadi centres, there were around 44 lakh beneficiaries.
“During a headcount, the figure was found to be 35 lakh. This was his (Sundaram’s) report. However, we all know many women cannot visit the centres regularly along with their children due to various reasons. I believe a chunk of the genuine beneficiaries missed out the counting. As regards ghost beneficiaries, I feel it will be anything from six lakh to nine lakh,” Brahma said.
She said that in his report to the Centre, Sundaram had said that Rs.1.10 crore was saved every day following the detection of the ghost beneficiaries. “But our annual budget is Rs.300 crore. If we take note of his figures of savings of money, we have to say there are no children in the centres,” Brahma said.
She added that she had asked the departmental officials to find out the basis of the data Sundaram had submitted to the Central government. “I don’t rule out the existence of ghost beneficiaries, but his figure is too exaggerated,” Brahma added.
The accusation
On Thursday, Maneka Gandhi said the Centre had asked all states to remove the names of non-existing beneficiaries from the list of the country’s 10 cr beneficiaries in Anganwadis.
“The beneficiary lists were inflated by ground-level workers and this led to pilferage and leakage of funds,” she said.
“In a survey last year, three lakh fake children were found to be listed in Assam Anganwadis. Another survey in June this year revealed the existence of 14 lakh fake children,” she added.