Raipur:
Women aged 100, 200, even 500 are listed as recipients of sewing machines and bicycles under welfare schemes in Chhattisgarh. The "miracle" could either be an error, or a massive scam waiting to be exposed.
No one knows for sure.
A Right to Information query by an activist, Sanjeev Agrawal, has revealed that many beneficiaries of the state Labour Department's schemes are centuries old. The oldest beneficiary is Usha Jamgare, 532. Many of these questionable entries have no addresses listed.
Mr Agrawal has called for an investigation into what he believes could be corruption involving schemes that cost the state over Rs 40 crore. The schemes were launched just before the November-December state elections.
The cycles were to help women between 18 and 35 years and the sewing machines were for women from 35 to 60. Over one lakh women are believed to have received the freebies, but their age seems to be off the mark by about a century - or five.
NDTV tries to contact officials in the Labour department but they were unavailable.