Rush to send fake 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' forms

Ranaghat: Fake government forms promising cash benefits in 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' (BBBP) scheme surfaced in Nadia district, despite the government ordering a CBI investigation into such complaints last month.

Though there was no provision for cash incentive in the BBBP scheme, the women assembled before the head post office here since yesterday with filled up forms that falsely promised Rs 2 lakh incentive in the scheme.

Police personnel had to be posted before the head post office to maintain law and order.

 "Women dropped the forms in stamped envelopes in the letter box. Some sent them through registered post and we were bound to receive it," an official of the head post office said, refusing to be quoted.

 "We had received over 200 application forms to be sent in the registered post yesterday. We cannot tell you about today's figures," he said.

A District administration official said that there was a mad rush to Ranaghat head post office and the postal authorities sought help. "We sent some police personnel including women there."

Nadia District Magistrate Sumit Gupta said that the administration has used public address system since last evening to make people aware that it was all fake.

He said, "Government officials and people's representatives were also asked not to sign any such forms."

One of the applicants in the queue Shyamali Roy said that she came to know from someone that Narendra Modi government would provide Rs 2 lakh to each girl student aged between 18 and 25 years for their studies.

Another applicant Rita Roy said that she came to know about it from a neighbour who had got the information from the Internet.

Both said they got the forms from photocopy shops.

The forms were being sold from the photocopy shops for a price between Rs 6 and Rs 20, according to the applicants.

District administration sources said they have closed several such shops in the area and warned the owners not to sell fake forms.

The DM said that he had heard about photocopy shops being the source of such forms and would initiate cases if any of them was caught.

Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Raj said in the Rajya Sabha on April 6 that the CBI probe was ordered after some fake BBBP forms with a false promise of cash incentive of Rs 2 lakh were received from Haryana, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal.