Ladki Bahin Yojana will continue, says Maharashtra Governor amid talks of scrutiny of women beneficiaries

Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who held the finance department in the previous government, said the thumping majority won by the ruling Mahayuti in the recently concluded Assembly polls was the result of the Ladki Bahin Yojana.

Leaders of the ruling alliance have in the past said that there will be scrutiny of the applications under the scheme and those ineligible will be removed.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said in view of complaints about some beneficiaries of the scheme not conforming with the parameters, scrutiny of applications is necessary.

“The scrutiny will be on the lines of the PM Kisan Yojana, where ineligible beneficiaries had given up their benefits on their own,” he had said.

‘Maharashtra attracted most FDI in India’

Meanwhile, Radhakrishnan said the state has topped the country in foreign direct investment (FDI) with Rs 1,25,101 crore in 2023-24 and that it again topped in the first two quarters, from April to September 2024-25, with FDI of Rs 1,13,236 crore, which is more than 90 per cent of last year’s total FDI.

“Maharashtra is one of the leading industrial states in the country. Maharashtra contributes more than 14 per cent to the country’s total GDP. The government has set a very ambitious target of making Maharashtra the first state in the country to achieve the target of $1 trillion economy by the year 2027-28,’’ the governor said in his speech.

Against the backdrop of a section of state government employees’ unions demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme, the governor said the government has decided to implement its Revised National Pension Scheme as well as the central government’s Unified Pension Scheme for employees who are covered by the National Pension Scheme.

Giving details about the state government’s move to make Maharashtra drought-free, the governor said the government has accorded administrative approval to 167 irrigation projects with irrigation potential of 25.21 lakh hectares in the last two years. Further, the government has accorded administrative approval to four river-linking schemes, namely Wainganga-Nalganga, Nar-Par-Girna, Damanganga-Ekdare-Godavari and Damanganga-Vaitarna-Godavari. It will create 4.33 lakh hectares irrigation potential.

The governor said the Centre’s decision to grant status of classical language to Marathi will help establish special centres to study Marathi language in 450 universities. More funds will be available from the central government for preservation and conservation of Marathi language.