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| Scheme for physically disabled goes wrong; beneficiaries missing, NGOs make merry | | J&K watches helplessly! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Jan 15: Serious fraud and bungling has been detected in implementation of scheme for assistance to differently abled persons for the purchase or fitting of aids and appliances in Jammu and Kashmir.
Several serious wrongs and breaches have been committed on the name of providing differently abled persons with aids and appliances. Several local leaders have even found to have forced the implementing agencies to get their names inscribed on the appliances and aids. In the handouts issued to the media, these leaders have claimed of having distributed these aids and appliances from their own pocket for the welfare of differently abled persons.
Aids and appliances which have been distributed among the beneficiaries were found to be of sub-standard quality. These spine chilling revelations have been made by Planning Commission of India (PCI) in its evaluation study report on the "Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase / Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP Scheme)" released in December 2013. Commission has given detailed accounts of wrongs which have taken place during the implementation of the scheme.
It needs to be mentioned here that ADIP Scheme is a centrally sponsored and is implemented through agencies that have been authorised and approved by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. As far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, all the Implementing Agencies are based outside the state. They visit the state only for doing camps.
Commission found out that implementing agencies conduct one camp for identification of beneficiaries but do not come for the second camp meant for distribution of appliances. During field survey, the report maintains that investigation team met with these problems as well. In many cases, the team was not able to locate the beneficiaries whose names were provided by the Implementing Agency.
This happened due to lack of specific address. In many places the address is limited to the name of a street or even a district/town. This problem was more acute in Udhampur District where the team could find only as less as two beneficiaries. In many cases where the team managed to find out the beneficiaries after putting in a lot of efforts, the persons mentioned in the list denied that they have received appliance from the Implementing Agency.
In some cases, they even denied having attended any camp. It was observed that the beneficiary list provided by the Implementing Agencies contained wrong details of the beneficiaries. This includes name and age of the beneficiaries which are crucial in reaching the beneficiaries. Report has pointed out that appliances like wheel chairs and tricycles provided through the camp were of medium quality. The tyres and rims had developed problems soon after they were obtained from implementing agency.
Referring to mismanagement, report has claimed that a beneficiary in Udhampur district had received two tricycles from two different agencies (one under ADIP). The first one has broken down irreparably and the second one has not been used for a long time because of unsupportive terrain.
None of the implementing agencies in the sampled districts are based within the state and hence, they have to depend on local leaders for the implementation of the scheme. Report has stated that due to this, they have to be submissive to the requirements of such leaders. It has added that this has led to misuse of the scheme for petty gains by the local leaders. They have also claimed that an appliance provided under the scheme carried name of a local leader as its donor.
As per data provided by implementing agencies, during the reference period 232 differently-abled had been provided benefit in the selected districts, out of these 232 our team has tried to talk to 180 beneficiaries but it was found that the addresses provided by implementing agencies were not full as only district names were provided to us and it was really difficult to find beneficiaries with only district names. District officials were also not found aware of the beneficiaries benefited under the project.
After three visits to the state, commission has said that it could only contact 83 beneficiaries and they too were found taking benefit from other schemes as well. In Jammu and Kashmir, the scheme is implemented by different agencies ranging from Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO) to NGOs. None of the Implementing Agencies in the sampled districts have own institutional capacities in the State. They are outside agents coming for camps only.
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