Chandigarh , March 26
He is ridiculed in his village as kagaz te lakhpati (a paper-millionaire). The 42-year-old carpenter wakes up every morning harbouring hopes that he would finally be able to exchange a scrap of paper with a cheque for Rs 20 lakh. But the Punjab small savings department is yet to oblige Kalu Ram from Bondiwala village in Ferozepur.

Kalu won the first prize in department’s lucky draw scheme in December 2008. His joy knew no bounds when officials at the draw announced his name and coupon number. But 15 months on, the prize money is yet to reach him.

Kalu is not alone. None of the winners of the 34th draw has received their prizes. Interestingly, the next two draws, 35th and 36th, were never held. This year, the department hasn’t even bothered to print coupons.

That has not prevented the state government from going ahead with advertisements promoting the 36th draw, which promises a Mercedes, a Maruti-Swift and an Alto as the top three prizes.

The department issues a lucky coupon for an investment of Rs 5,000 and six lucky coupons for Rs 25,000 and so on to people, who deposit or invest in any of the small saving schemes like the Public Provident Fund, National Savings Certificate, Kisan Vikas Patra and Time Deposits at post offices. While the department is learnt to have spent several lakhs of rupees in advertising the 36th draw, it has not been able to print the coupons, which are handed out to investors.

Depositors, who have made an investment till the end of the fiscal year, in this case till Wednesday next week, will be eligible for the draw but there is no sign of coupons.. “We’ve only got the small saving certificates with the assurance that lucky draw coupons would be issued later,” rued a depositor, Jagdish Singh.