Alarmed by detection of around 20 lakh ‘duplicate’ job cards in the MGNREGA scheme, Bihar on Wednesday said it had launched a special drive to verify cards issued to 1.27 crore beneficiaries to recover ‘ghost payments’ made.

“During uploading of data on management information system it came to light that nearly 20 lakh job cards have been issued with different numbers and names but same name of head of the family,” State Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra told the State Assembly in reply to a short notice question.

The Minister said a large number of ‘duplicate’ job cards had been detected in Muzaffarpur (97,197), Samastipur (87,934), Patna (72,058), Purnea (60,631) and Gaya (51,147).

He said it had come to light that out of 1.27 crore job cards issued, nearly 40-45 lakh were operational. “In view of this discrepancy, a comprehensive verification process of job cards has been under process,” Mishra said. He said the verification exercise would be completed by May-end this year.

The minister said verification of cards included perusing through statement of job details of payment made by post offices to beneficiaries. He said from June this year, payment against the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act work would be made through bank account.

Mishra said a sum of Rs 70 lakh “ghost payment” had been recovered.

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