Billed Dry Fruits, Served Khichdi? MP Govt Event Draws Scrutiny

Last Updated:July 14, 2025, 19:50 IST

In Bhadwahi village, Madhya Pradesh, a water conservation event bill claimed 14 kg of dry fruits were consumed in an hour, causing outrage. Officials promised an investigation.

Representative Image. (Pexels)

A controversy has erupted in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhadwahi village, in Shahdol district,  over a suspicious bill for a water conservation event. The bill claimed that 14 kg of dry fruits were consumed in one hour. That unusual figure, part of a rupee 24,270 hospitality bill filed under the Jal Ganga Sanvardhan Abhiyan, triggered public outrage. 

The viral news and the images of the inflated bill on social media triggered an investigation. According to the records, the programme took place on May 25, 2025, as part of the state-run Jal Ganga campaign, and was attended by nearly twenty senior officials, including the District Collector, the CEO of the district panchayat, and the SDM, NDTV reported.

Aiming to prompt water conservation and grassroots dialogue, the event reportedly involved elaborate catering–at least on paper. The bills filed after the event showed massive quantities of food– 14 kilograms of dry fruits, 30 kilograms of namkeen, nine kilograms of fresh fruits, six litres of milk, and five kilograms of sugar. The total cost of this brief ‘hospitality’ amounted to more than twenty-four thousand rupees.

NDTV’s investigation visited the villages mentioned in the bills, Bhadwahi and Bharri, from where the dry fruits were supposedly procured, and found a different story. Govind Gupta, a small grocery shop owner in Bharri, was listed as a major supplier in the documents, but the actual transactions didn’t match the bills.

Gupta, however, said he never stocked such quantities of dry fruits. His shop had no GST registration, no billing system, and, visibly, no stock of dry fruits. “I don’t even have a proper bill book. They sometimes take blank slips from me and use them later. I don’t remember giving anyone 5 kilos of cashews or 30 kilos of namkeen. I don’t keep such stock," Gupta told NDTV. 

The investigation took a surprising turn when it was revealed that Lallu Kewat, listed as a supplier of fruits, ghee, and other items, actually runs a business selling building materials, not groceries. When NDTV arrived at his address, it turned out that Kewat isn’t a grocer at all–he is a supplier of building materials.

According to his wife, Roshni, they only deal in sand, cement, and gravel. “We don’t supply fruits or ghee," she said, looking puzzled at the idea that a government bill had credited her husband with feeding bureaucrats.

In Bhadwahi, no evidence of the extravagant food claimed in the documents was found. Villagers who attended the event said they were served simple dal khichdi and a little seviyan, with no dry fruits in sight.

“There were only two small plates of cashews and almonds, and the officers barely touched them. Most of us never even saw them," NDTV quoted a farmer, Mangaldin Yadav, as saying.

“Jalebi, samosas – nothing was distributed. The public got nothing. Even the money for our labour wasn’t paid," another resident, Ramswaroop Jaiswal, added.

The officials had come, the villagers said, for an hour-long event involving “Bori Bandhan"– a traditional technique of stacking sandbags to conserve water. But the villagers claim the effort was symbolic at best. “As soon as it rained, all the bags washed away," said Vimal Singh, who was present at the site. “It’s a live nala. Nothing stays there."

Villagers in Bhadwahi now joke that children should be named “Kaju" and “Kishmish", because that’s the only place these items exist on government paper. “We got khichdi; they got praise. And the files got fat with fake bills," said one villager bitterly.

After visiting the drain where the water conservation activity took place, NDTV found that though the campaign’s intent was noble-reviving and cleaning water bodies, ponds, and traditional wells- the execution, at least in Bhadwahi, appeared to be focused more on refreshments than results.

Mudrika Singh, Additional CEO of Shahdol Zila Panchayat, acknowledged the irregularities. “Yes, we had gone for the Chaupal event. It’s a remote area, so food was arranged for the villagers and officials. We were not aware of the cashew-raisin bill. It has come to our notice and will be investigated," she said.

Cabinet Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya also said that he did not know about the incident. 

Location :

Madhya Pradesh, India, India

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News india Billed Dry Fruits, Served Khichdi? MP Govt Event Draws Scrutiny