Sunny Leone named ‘beneficiary’ of Chhattisgarh government’s cash dole

Raipur

Sunny Leone is a “beneficiary” of the Chhattisgarh government’s Mahtari Vandan Yojana and received money from a bank account in Bastar Rs 10,000 was withdrawn, an investigation into a case in which funds were withdrawn using the actor’s name under the scheme said.

The scheme is a direct cash incentive scheme that provides Rs 1,000 to eligible married women in the state. This is a major poll promise made by the BJP during the 2023 assembly elections.

A website with publicly accessible beneficiary information shows the beneficiary’s name is “Sunny Leon” and her husband’s name is “Jonny Sins,” both misspellings of the actor’s names.

Bastar Collector Haris S said that a man named Virendra Joshi opened the account and withdrew nearly Rs 10,000 in the actor’s name. Mr. Joshi hails from the same Bastar village where the fake account was opened. Mr. Harris said he works with a private company in Jagdalpur and his wife is a beneficiary of the scheme.

In the regular process, potential beneficiaries submit applications to local anganwadi staff, who physically verify the applicant and then forward the details to her supervisor. Mr. Harris said that as per the latest information, Anganwadi workers and supervisors are being scanned. The collector said an investigation is underway into why Josh used the name of a specific celebrity.

Earlier this month, the Vishnu Deo Sai government disbursed Rs 65,204 crore as the tenth installment of the scheme, which has 70 lakh married women as beneficiaries. So far, more than Rs 5,000 crore has been transferred directly into the bank accounts of these women under this scheme.