Udaipur, Jul 23 (IANS): Men in this Rajasthan district can deliver babies. Surprised? This is the claim of a health centre.

The local health department has unearthed a scam at Gogunda Community Health Centre in Kotda town, where at least 32 men are recorded to have delivered babies, a senior official who is investigating the scandal, told IANS Saturday.

The pregnancy assistants of the centre allegedly provided false delivery details to obtain government aid meant for Below Poverty Line (BPL) pregnant women under the centrally sponsored scheme, the 'Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)'.

Names of at least 32 men, claiming to have delivered babies at the centre, are mentioned in the records, the official said.

"Many of them have been mentioned several times in the records," he said.

The pregnancy ward's head has made entries of 250 deliveries in one year, the official said.

Records claim that a 60-year-old woman delivered babies twice within a year. Another woman named Sita is shown to have delivered 24 babies in a year.

The pregnancy ward's head has herself claimed to have delivered 11 babies in a year, the officer said.

"She had been removed immediately after the scam came to light, but now she is missing," the official said.

A complaint will be lodged after completion of a departmental enquiry, he said.

"A team of three senior doctors has been constituted," he added.

The JSY aims to reduce the number of maternal and neonatal deaths among pregnant women of BPL, above 19 years of age and up to two live births. It integrates help in the form of cash with antenatal care during the pregnancy period, institutional care during delivery as well as immediately after delivery.

Under the scheme, Rs.1,700 is given to the woman on child delivery while the midwife gets about Rs.200.

The scam came to light Friday.