NEW DELHI: The ministry of women and child development is grappling with a fraud being perpetuated on the poor on a very large scale: people are selling them fake “application forms” for the Centre’s flagship “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” scheme — the ministry has received nearly 30 lakh fake forms this year — on the promise that just filling the forms will make them eligible for a Rs 2 lakh cash incentive if they have a girl child.There is no such incentive. While most forms came from UP, the biggest surge in fake forms was seen in Himachal in October-November. Of late, such forms have been coming in from Punjab in large numbers.The WCD ministry’s warehouse in Delhi’s CGO Complex is spilling over with sackloads of these forms despite several media campaigns that the BBBP scheme does not provide any cash incentive.According to the ministry, the fraudsters who created these forms sell them to ordinary people for Rs 20-Rs 50 a piece. The poor are told that just filling these forms would make them eligible for cash incentives of up to Rs 2 lakh. They end up filling these forms with personal information, photographs, and even bank and Aadhaar details Such is the magnitude of the problem that a meeting between the ministries of WCD, law, home and I&B was held late last month to discuss how to deal with the fraud.The WCD ministry, which earlier sent such forms to the states from which they came for investigation, has now decided to destroy all forms without any notice and continue with the awareness campaign to inform people that the scheme does not provide any individual benefit and is not a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme.The ministry had earlier referred the matter to the CBI , too, but the fake forms continue to arrive. Since most of these forms come by Speed Post or general post, the ministry had also informed the postmasters of states about the problem.In media campaigns, the ministry has advised people not to share any personal details and not to subscribe to such fraudulent schemes.