The administration of Malda’s Harishchandrapur- II block has come across cases where married women have applied for the one-time ₹25,000 grant paid to unmarried girls under the state’s Kanyashree scheme.

According to administrative sources, during the verification of beneficiaries of the scheme, it has been found that some applications were submitted by married women to avail benefits of the scheme.

No married woman is entitled to the benefits of the Kanyashree scheme.

Sonam Wangdi Lama, the joint BDO of the block, has found at least 14 such cases during the verificationprocess.

What further surprised the block administrative officials were the complaints made by some ineligible applicants who claimed that they paid money to persons who visited their places for verification of the marital status of applicants to get benefits of the scheme.

Sources said that recently, the verification of Kanyashree beneficiaries was conducted at Talgachi and Karkaria villages, which are under the Mashalda panchayet of Harishchandrapur-II block.

“A section of applicants or their relatives admitted that the applications were made even after the applicants were married. Some of them are now even mothers,” said a source in the administration.

Under the scheme, female students are provided with annual financial assistance from their school level till their university studies. One of the main objectives of the scheme is to discourage child or adolescent marriage while facilitating their higher studies.

According to the scheme, a female student of 14 years of age gets ₹1,000 per year for her studies from the stategovernment.

Once the girl completes 18 years of age and if she remains unmarried, a one-time grant of ₹25,000 is credited to her bank account.

“However, no married girl is entitled to the Kanyashree benefit. We have found that some applications were filed by married women. Those have to be cancelled,” said a senior official of the Malda district administration.

Bedara Khatun, a close relative of one such applicant, said the student got married three years ago and is the mother of a two-year-old.

“She applied for a one-time grant (of ₹25,000) after her marriage. Two persons, who introduced themselves as the representatives of the block and the panchayat, came for the field verification and said they needed ₹5,000 to approve the application. We paid them ₹3,000,” said Khatun.

An applicant, who is a former student of a state-aided high madrasa, said she got married and divorced.

“I applied for a one-time grant before marriage. But now that I got married and later divorced, I had to pay ₹3,500 to get the benefit,”she said.

Madrasa authorities said the certificate that a girl was unmarried was issued by the panchayat concerned.

“Sometimes, ICDS workers make inquiries about the applicant’s marital status and send the report to the department concerned at the BDO office. We have no role,” said a madrasa representative.

The situation prompted the administration to order a probe. “We are verifying all applications. An inquiry begun to find out if anybody from the BDO’s office or the local panchayat is involved in this corruption,” said an official.