In UP, they forgot this department

It began as a refreshingly different government initiative in 1976, a scheme that helps people who marry outside their caste or religion fa...

It began as a refreshingly different government initiative in 1976, a scheme that helps people who marry outside their caste or religion face life boldly — with a cash award.

Then it became a department. And they forgot all about it. The cash award is now Rs 10,000, but from 1999, only 88 couples have registered for the award, and in the last two years, not a single couple has come forward.

Yet, the 12-member the National Integration Department continues to guzzle over Rs 1 lakh every month in salaries. Not that the babus here are happy either.

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Shunted from one authority to another, officials here are so disoriented that they can’t access files that are more than five years old.

Thanks to the government’s approach to what could have been a key initiative in bridging the communal divide, many consider a job here as a ‘‘punishment posting’’.

Started under Bhasha Department, the department came under the Secretariat Administration, before the Mulayam Singh government gave it a separate identity.

‘‘The department functioned in an off-and-on manner, sometimes independently or under the Secretariat Administration, depending on the mood of the government,’’ says bureaucrat Shekhar Agarwal, once principal secretary in the department.

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Ask the department’s secretary, Sri Krishna, for details, he fumbles: ‘‘It is impossible to get hold of records more than five years old, as we have been shunted from one department to another so many times.’’

Some wonder how such awards actually promote national integration.

Wazda, who married a Hindu, has a poser: ‘‘What if a needy boy manipulates a simple girl into marriage and abandons her after getting the award money?’’

Answers anyone?