VEHARI, July 28: Over fifty per cent food stamp scheme applications forwarded by MPAs to the DCO office were found to be bogus when subjected to scrutiny, a source in revenue dept confided to Dawn on Monday.

The source said the scrutiny revealed that hundreds of applicants whose national identity cards’ copies were attached to their application forms could not be detected in the areas concerned. The scheme, announced by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, is expected to be launched on Aug 14.

The source said under the scheme each of the seven ruling party MPAs in the district was provided 5,000 application forms to recommend as many ‘deserving’ families for the Rs1,000 monthly stipend. However, an MPA belonging to the opposition reportedly got only 1,600 such forms.

The MPAs were asked to return these forms to the DCO office for further verification being done by health, agriculture and revenue departments’ officials.

The source said during the scrutiny, over 50 per cent forms belonging to Mailsi areas were found to be bogus while the ratio was similar in Vehari and Burewala.

DCO Khuram Agha, when informed of the situation, said all the bogus forms would be rejected.