LUCKNOW: The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found large-scale irregularities in Uttar Pradesh's `Kanya Vidyadhan scheme' -- a project close to the heart of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Under the scheme, the State Government had distributed Rs.20,000 to each girl passing intermediate examination from U.P. Board. These girls belonged to below poverty line (BPL) category.

The CAG report tabled in the State Assembly, has rapped the Education Department for not properly chalking out a plan for fair distribution of money.

In many cases, the money had been doled out to non-deserving candidates in 2004-05. The CAG said the Government had also failed to recover money from them. The department also distributed the money without any survey for identification of deserving beneficiaries for which the State Government had allocated Rs 10 lakh. The fund was surrendered in March 2004.

In the first phase, the Government had allocated Rs.200 crore to the department for the scheme and the selection committee consisting of district magistrate, district inspector of schools and chief development officer (CDO) was to decide the case. As per the allocation, the money was meant for one lakh girls.

Under the schemes, girls falling in the BPL category were to be selected on priority and girl students above poverty line were to be benefited after them. As against the target of one lakh beneficiaries, 96,942 BPL girls were enlisted but actual recipients were 92,597 girls.

The department distributed Rs 185.19 crore.

While the remaining 4,345 deserving girls were denied the money, the department selected 7,403 girls belonging to above poverty line (APL) and doled out Rs 14.81 crore.

The CAG sample survey in Allahabad, Azamgarh, Jhansi, JP Nagar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi indicated that 2698 BPL girls were left out.

The CAG said that the district selection committee had also completely failed to verify income certificates.- UNI

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