Bogus scheme msg goes viral, girls fall prey

Becoming victims of a rumour, girls from the taluk have been thronging post offices to send their documents to the Defence Ministry.

A rumour is doing rounds in the taluk that bank accounts of girl students will be credited an amount of Rs 2 lakh under the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme of the Central government. In the last two days, over 1,000 girl students have dispatched their documents to the Defence Ministry via registered post.

A rumour spread that girls from the age of 8 to 30 years will be beneficiaries of this bogus scheme.

Believing that the rumour is true, girls are getting certificates from their school principals and queueing up in front of government offices to get the certificates attested by gazetted officers.

Neither the taluk administration nor Education Department is aware of such a government scheme. No official has conducted an inspection. Students crowding post offices to post their documents has caused inconvenience to other customers.

Each student is spending around Rs 100 to avail an application and send the documents via registered post.

Women and Child Welfare Department officer Jyothilakshmi said that the department has not received any information about the said scheme.

But, the officials in the Education Department have turned a blind eye and not issued any clarification from their end. Schoolgirls continued to send applications as on Thursday.