The Punjab Government has ordered immediate verification of Ashirwad Scheme payments in at least five districts after the detection of suspected bogus and multiple payments running into crores of rupees.The scheme, formerly known as the Shagun Scheme, provides Rs 51,000 in financial assistance for the marriage of daughters from economically weaker families.The districts under scrutiny are Amritsar, Fazilka, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Mansa. In the initial probe, payments exceeding Rs 30 crore in Amritsar alone have come under scrutiny. Several cases have been detected in which the Rs 51,000 assistance was paid multiple times into particular bank accounts. The claims in Amritsar and the other districts are being verified.Sources in the government said the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which manages the centralised Ashirwad payment portal, detected the anomaly after introducing filters to identify multiple payments to beneficiaries.Documents accessed by The Tribune show that Director, Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, Vimmi Bhullar constituted district-level special committees to verify the eligibility and processing of applications after multiple irregularities were detected across the five districts.The committees have been asked to examine applications received, sanctioned, rejected or not accepted. The scrutiny includes alleged violations of the prescribed minimum age of 18 years and income norms, irregular payments under Scheduled Caste and non-Scheduled Caste components, assistance to ineligible state government employees, payments exceeding the limit for a third girl child and rejection of applications on grounds not permitted under the scheme guidelines.The committees will also identify cases of irregular sanctions, excess or inadmissible payments and wrongful rejection of eligible applications.Dr Baljit Kaur, Minister for Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, did not respond to repeated calls.The scheme provides financial assistance for the marriage of daughters belonging to Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections. The benefit is available to permanent residents of Punjab with an annual family income of up to Rs 32,790 and is restricted to two daughters per family.During the previous SAD-BJP government, the assistance was paid through cheques. The Congress government led by Capt Amarinder Singh later shifted the scheme to a centralised payment portal.