Bareilly: As many as 61 married women in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district were fraudulently receiving widow pensions for the past six years.
The Women Welfare Department has begun issuing recovery notices to these ineligible beneficiaries, with Rs 23.86 lakh identified for reclamation. So far, recovery has been completed from 26 women, and action is ongoing against the rest.
One of the most glaring examples comes from Bheempur village in the Alampur Jafrabad block, where, two women—Parveen and Sunita, who are sisters-in-law—were receiving widow pensions despite being married and their husbands still alive. Both women were issued recovery certificates (RCs) of Rs 69,000 each.
Parveen revealed that some agents from Aonla had approached her and offered to enrol her under the “Mahamaya Pension Scheme” for a fee of Rs 3,000. After submitting her documents, she began receiving pension payments and claimed that the agent even took the first instalment from her account.
“How can I return Rs 69,000? My husband Munesh works as a labourer. We do not have that kind of money,” a distressed Parveen said.
Village head Shripal Singh said nearly 25 women in Bheempur receive widow pensions, but Parveen and Sunita’s names were not on the local block’s official list. Their pensions, he added, appeared to have been processed from another block.