A widow pension scam has been busted in Uttar Pradesh where at least 22 women with alive husbands had been receiving widow pension under a government scheme.
The matter came to light after one Sandeep Kumar in Batsganj village, noticed a message from the bank on his wife’s phone around ten days ago that her account has been credited with Rs 3,000. He then checked his wife’s bank account and discovered that she had been receiving widows’ pension.
On further queries, he found that his mother-in-law and sister-in-law were receiving the pension even though their husbands were alive.
An investigation into the matter further showed that many other women, apart from those in Kumar’s family, were beneficiaries of the widow’s scheme even though their husbands are alive.
The district administration has ordered a probe into the alleged negligence. Ashwini Kumar, a district probation officer, said an official had already been terminated for this scam.