A confidential 36-page report by the Madhya Pradesh Accountant-General has unearthed an alleged fraud to the tune of several crores in the State’s nutrition programme for schoolchildren.
Since the audit report came to light, the Opposition Congress has been attacking Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who supervises the Women and Child Development Department. The only response from the government till Monday evening was that the “report was not final”.
The audit report observes that there was “large scale fraud/misappropriation etc in the identification of beneficiaries, production, transportation, distribution and quality control of THR [Take Home Ration]”.
The THR is a component of the Supplementary Nutrition Programme, one of the services provided under the Integrated Child Development Scheme or ICDS. In simple words, THR comprises food grains and other items provided to address the nutritional requirements of 49.58 lakh beneficiaries — children (0.5–3 years), pregnant and lactating mothers, and out-of-school adolescent girls (11-14 years).
Fake beneficiaries
While the department procured and distributed 4.05 tonnes of THR to these beneficiaries between 2018 and 2021 that cost the exchequer ₹2,393.21 crore, the auditor examined the THR given to 24% of the beneficiaries (nearly 12 lakh) and found that there were irregularities in estimating the number of beneficiaries, transportation, ration mills producing beyond capacity and falsified distribution, among others.
The auditor found that the Women and Child Development Department had estimated, without conducting any baseline survey, the number of out-of-school adolescent girls at 36.08 lakh, way higher than the School Education Department estimate of 9,000 in 2018-19 and the ration was drawn in their names. In 49 anganwadis in eight districts, where only three such adolescent girls were registered, rations worth ₹110.83 crore were distributed to 29,104 such girls after listing 63,748 as beneficiaries.
Similarly, the registration number of “trucks” that six manufacturing plants or firms claimed to have been used to transport 1,125.64 tonnes of rations costing ₹6.94 crores were found to be those of motorcycles, cars, autos and tankers. The report says that more than 10,000 tonnes of rations, costing ₹62.72 crores, were not transported nor available in the warehouse.
The report highlights that in the 2017-19 period, Madhya Pradesh reported the maximum number of infant deaths and stood third in terms of maternal mortality in the country.
On the alleged scam, State Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that the audit report was not final but a part of the process. He said that the Public Accounts Committee would examine it.
Meanwhile the Congress has been attacking the Chief Minister on the issue.
“The Home Minister gives a clean chit to the culprits even before an investigation. This incident has shown that the MP government backs criminals and the corrupt. The Chief Minister’s involvement should also be probed as the department comes directly under him,” said Congress media-in-charge K.K. Mishra.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh tweeted that the “BJP government of Madhya Pradesh had earlier ruined the future of the youth with the Vyapam scam. Now injustice to poor children and pregnant women! Did Mama [Mr. Chouhan] form the government with Maharaj [Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia] just to commit such scams?”.
