Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday, June 2, assured that the government will not discontinue its flagship 'Ladki Bahin' welfare scheme for 1.70 crore eligible women. However, he added the government will recover funds from around 14,000 men who were found to have wrongly availed benefits under the scheme.
While speaking to reporters, the CM assured, "The scheme will never be shut down. Even today, it is the largest welfare scheme of its kind among states in the country, and it will continue." However, The CM added that the government will recover the funds from 14,000 men who allegedly availed the scheme's benefits by posing as women beneficiaries.
CM informed that during verification, several anomalies came to light, like 10 lakh women were found to have an annual income exceeding Rs 250,000, while 500,000 women were from households where a government employee was working. Additionally, about 14,000 men had applied for the scheme themselves.
Meanwhile, beneficiary count dropped from 2.4 crore to nearly 1.7 crore after the e-KYC (Know Your Customer) deadline of April 30, but the disqualifications were also linked to non-compliance with eligibility criteria of the scheme launched two years ago.
The opposition parties, however, alleged that the government had 'betrayed' women and was weeding out beneficiaries due to 'severe financial crisis'. AIMIM leader Waris Pathan questioned how nearly 80 lakh women who were previously considered eligible had allegedly become ineligible within just one-and-a-half years.
He added that ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the government had distributed public funds under the scheme and transferred money directly into the accounts of women beneficiaries
NCP-SP leader Supriya Sule also raised similar concerns and claimed that during elections, party workers had gone door-to-door to help women fill out application forms under the Ladki Bahin Scheme. She also sought explanation for the reduction in beneficiaries, noting that around 2.25 crore women had earlier been receiving benefits under the scheme.
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