Agra: Krishna Kumari, 32, last gave birth eight years ago. But to her surprise, records at the Fatehabad community health centre (CHC) in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra suggest that she delivered 25 children over a period of 30 months and underwent sterilisation five times.
The records were uncovered during an audit by the Uttar Pradesh department of health and family welfare, which revealed that an amount of Rs 45,000 was sanctioned in Krishna’s name under the Janani Suraksha Yojana—a central scheme under the National Health Mission (NHM).
According to sources in the district administration, the audit revealed that Janani Suraksha Yojana funds to the tune of Rs 9 lakh were swindled in the name of deliveries and sterilisations, that happened only on paper.
Taking cognizance of the findings, Dr Pinky Jorwal, mission director of the NHM in Uttar Pradesh, arrived in Agra Tuesday to conduct inquiries. On a two-day visit to the district, she is inspecting CHCs and other neonatal institutions to prepare a report on the scale of misappropriations.
Of the cases that have come to light, Krishna’s is perhaps the most stark.
On Tuesday, Agra Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Arun Srivastava recorded Krishna’s statement at the Fatehabad CHC. In her statement, Krisha said she was a resident of Nagla Kadam village in Aligarh district and lives in Haryana’s Gurugram with her husband. The couple have two sons; the elder son was born in 2014 and the younger son in 2017.
Krishna admitted that she underwent sterilisation after the second delivery.
She also revealed that Ashok, a relative, opened an account in her name in the Bank of India. But her mobile number was never registered with the bank which is why she never received any transaction-related updates.
CMO Srivastava confirmed to ThePrint that an initial probe revealed Ashok opened bank accounts in the name of 45 women and that his was the registered mobile number for all these accounts.
Money was sent to these women’s accounts by showing them as beneficiaries of Janani Suraksha Yojana—launched in 2005 to reduce “maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutional delivery”.
Under the scheme, all pregnant women delivering in state-run health facilities are eligible for a cash entitlement of Rs 1,400 in rural and Rs 1,000 in urban areas. This amount varies for women from families earmarked below the poverty line, or from the SC/ST communities.
The CMO’s preliminary probe revealed that Ashok withdrew all the funds sent to accounts opened in the women’s name through UPI.
Statements of multiple officials part of the process including the former superintendent of Fatehabad CHC, a block account manager and a data operator are being recorded in connection with the probe.
Moreover, nodal officers have been deployed in all CHCs as well as the SN Medical College and Women’s Hospital to conduct an audit of all payments disbursed under the Janani Suraksha Yojana. The police, however, have yet to register an FIR in this regard.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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