Mumbai, June 1: No recovery will be made from women beneficiaries who received honorarium under the Ladki Bahin scheme but were later found to be ineligible, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday.
Defending the ongoing verification of beneficiaries, Fadnavis said the exercise was necessary as the government could have faced objections from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India if payments to ineligible beneficiaries had continued.
Government explains beneficiary verification exercise
Meanwhile, Aditi Tatkare, Minister for Women and Child Development, explained that the exclusion of 80 lakh beneficiaries was not solely due to failure to complete e-KYC. The figure also includes women who exceeded the age limit or were already receiving benefits under other government schemes.
The Chief Minister further said that when the scheme was launched, the government had announced that payments would initially be made based on self-certification, with verification to follow later.
“Had we conducted verification first, the process would have taken an entire year. Therefore, we accepted the information provided by women in their applications as genuine and extended the scheme to all eligible applicants.”
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Irregularities detected during data verification
Fadnavis said that once the government began cross-checking data through databases, several irregularities emerged, including:
. 14,000 men had applied in the names of women.
. Some government employees were found among the beneficiaries.
. Around 10 lakh women who file income tax returns were identified.
. Another 4 lakh to 5 lakh women were found to own cars.
. Beneficiaries who repeatedly failed to complete KYC despite reminders were declared ineligible, and their honorarium payments were stopped.
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