Assam Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma on Friday said the number of fake children listed in the State’s anganwadi centres could be anywhere between 6 and 9 lakh and not 14 lakh as Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had stated.
Ms. Brahma put the blame for the “exaggerated” figure on the State’s former Social Welfare Director S.S. Meenakshi Sundaram, who had submitted a report to the Centre “without our knowledge” two days before his transfer to another department.
Centre’s order
Citing Assam’s ‘fake children’ on Thursday, Ms. Gandhi said that the Centre has asked all States to remove the names of non-existing beneficiaries from the list of some 10 crore beneficiaries in anganwadi centres across the country.
“In a survey last year, three lakh fake children were found to be listed in the anganwadis of Assam. Another survey in June this year revealed the existence of 14 lakh fake children. The beneficiary lists were inflated by ground-level workers and this led to pilferage and leakage of funds,” she said.
Ms. Brahma said the figure was not right. “There are about 44 lakh beneficiaries in Assam’s 62,000 anganwadi centres. The actual figure was found to be 35 lakh during a headcount, and this was in a report by Mr. Sundaram earlier. So the ‘ghost’ beneficiaries tuned out to be 9 lakh,” she said.
Another report
But on August 10, she said, Mr. Sundaram submitted another report to the Centre citing the number as 14 lakh. “I was not aware of this report, nor were the other officers of the department. At this point in time, I cannot say where he got the number from,” she said.
“The number of fake children is much less, possibly between 6 lakh and 9 lakh. A chunk of genuine beneficiaries may have missed out on counting because women in the rural areas cannot take their children regularly to the anganwadi centres because of domestic and farm engagements,” she said.
‘Wrong information’
The Minister also found fault with Mr. Sundaram’s assertion, in the report to the Centre, that he saved ₹1.10 crore per day after the detection of the ‘ghost’ beneficiaries.
“Our annual budget is ₹300 crore. His savings figures imply that there are no children in Assam’s anganwadi centres,” she said, adding that the department has been asked to find out how Mr. Sundaram arrived at the figure.
