Cartoons as workers, a picture-perfect scam in Gurdaspur
A Gurdaspur village panchayat devised a novel way to fraudulently claim payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by projecting cartoons as individuals. Senior officials expressed shock at the audacity of the panchayat members in attempting such deception.
Sketchy business
A caricature of students painted on a school gate was passed off as “workers” in records
Beneficiaries stood beside the cartoon and took photos to fake worker presence
These manipulated images were uploaded as “proof” of work done under MGNREGA
Funds were then credited for more people than actually present
The issue was raised by Ashok Chaudhary, husband of former Cabinet minister Aruna Chaudhary, during a District Development Coordination and Monitoring (DISHA) meeting chaired by Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. The revelation left the meeting hall stunned into silence.
Randhawa, recognising the gravity of the situation, immediately directed Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Dalwinderjit Singh to conduct a thorough inquiry. Simultaneously, the SDMs of Kalanaur and Dinanagar were also instructed to investigate the matter in their respective areas.
The fraudulent activity involved "earth filling and levelling" work at Gazikot government school, located 10 km from Gurdaspur, carried out between January 29 and February 12 under MGNREGA. To fake attendance, beneficiaries stood in front of a caricature painted on the school’s main gate and took photographs, presenting the cartoons as individuals. These images were then uploaded online to falsely show worker attendance, leading to payments being processed.
In one photo, nine individuals were seen alongside the caricature, while another showed six workers with the same animation. Despite this, payments were credited to 10 and seven individuals, respectively. Two absent beneficiaries —brothers Ajit Singh and Balbir Singh, allegedly close to some panchayat members — were fraudulently included as cartoons.
Chaudhary said, “The brothers have been paid the money after being shown as cartoons.” An officer noted that such frauds might have occurred in the past and called for a need for strict punishment since taxpayer money was misused.
The deception reportedly extended to other schools in the district, with officials stressing that only a proper inquiry could uncover the full extent of the fraud. The Punjab School Education Board’s Building as a Learning Aid (BALA) scheme encourages educational paintings on school walls and gates. The caricatures thus drawn inadvertently facilitated the scam.
Chaudhary called for a comprehensive probe and said, “This is a deception of the first order. Investigations should determine if similar fraudulent payments are being made in other districts.”
