The Bihar government will not be taking any “coercive action” to recover money from the wrongful recipients of its popular Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, involving payment of Rs 10,000 into accounts of eligible women as first instalment.
Story continues below this ad
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO
The clarification has come following the discovery that 470 disabled men had received the Rs 10,000 by “mistake”, from the time the scheme was launched two months ago, before the Assembly elections. Since then, 1.51 crore women – who are required to be members of the Bihar government’s Jeevika Self-Help Groups – have received the amount.
Blaming the “gross error” on officials, Bihar Jeevika CEO Himanshu Pandey told The Indian Express: “Apart from the 11 lakh women self-help groups, we also have 1,000 such groups of divyang (the disabled). We detected that 470 differently abled men have also received Rs 10,000 each under the Mahila Rojgar Yojana… Of 70 such cases reported from Darbhanga, we issued notices to 12 beneficiaries to either reverse the amount or adjust it into accounts of new women applicants from their families.”
Story continues below this ad
Pandey added that no coercive action would be taken. “When we run such a large scheme, such errors may happen. We detected it ourselves,” he said, pointing out that the first option provided to the men is to get the amount adjusted against their own family members.
The CEO added that apart from the case of the 470 disabled, errors were few. “We got some stray instances where bank accounts into which money went were joint ones with spouses, but that is okay.”
Story continues below this ad
Some of the men who got the money admitted that they were apprehensive at first, but said they had been reassured by officials. Nagendra Ram of Darbhanga said: “Jeevika approached us Monday. Initially, we panicked. But now, we are being told that any woman member can apply to adjust the amount. It is a relief.”
Another such beneficiary, Balram Sahani, said they thought the money had been rightfully deposited into their accounts. “We are poor. We thought the amount was meant for our self-help groups as well. I am now asking a woman member from the family to apply, so that Rs 10,000 can get adjusted.”
Earlier, Bihar Rural Development Minister Shravan Kumar sought a detailed report from Jeevika, after the Opposition claimed that poor people were receiving “recovery notices” for the amount wrongly deposited. “We have learnt that it was a case of wrong payment,” Kumar said.
Story continues below this ad
RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said the error raised questions. “Let people know if Jeevika worked under election pressure to distribute Rs 10,000 without properly checking bank accounts,” Tiwari said, adding that they had their doubts regarding the Mahila Rojgar Yojana.
The ‘Dashazari’ scheme, as it came to be known during the elections, is believed to have been one of the key factors in the NDA’s big win, getting 202 seats in a House of 243. The RJD and Congress cited the scheme as one of the key reasons for their rout.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd