Return our votes, we will return your money: Male beneficiaries who received Rs 10,000 before Bihar election

Patna: A piquant situation has arisen in Jale block of Darbhanga district where the Bihar Government has issued notices to 14 male beneficiaries who received Rs 10,000 in their account due to ‘technical glitch’.

These male voters have refused to return the amount and questioned why the government found the ‘technical glitch’ three months after crediting the amount to the accounts.

They have now been served notice to refund the amount.

Balram Sahni is one such poor beneficiary, who is physically challenged and insists he has no money to pay back. “Now when they have won elections with our votes, they want the money back. Why ask three months after giving the money,” he says.

His co-villager Pramila stands by him. “Return our votes. We will return your money,” she said, reacting to the notice served to Balram.

“They gave us money. We gave them our votes. The account is settled,” one of the beneficiaries, Narendra Ram, told a national English daily.

Ram has the logic to buttress his point.

“If the government says Rs 10,000 was credited to our account due to technical glitch, then we should have been told about it the day it was credited or a few days after we received the sum on September 26. Why this notice for refund three months after paying us? Or, for that matter, why this notice one month after the NDA won with our vote. You return our vote. We will refund your 10,000,” insists Ram, adding that they are poor labourers and have spent the entire amount on purchasing clothes and household items.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojna on September 25, shortly before the first vote was cast on November 6.

Under the scheme, Rs 10,000 each was transferred to 1.4 crore women as financial assistance to do their own business.

It is believed that the dole of 10,000, meant only for women, turned out to be a game changer in the polls and women in droves voted for NDA, thereby helping Nitish Kumar-led alliance to win 202 seats in the 243 member House.