Ladki Bahin row: Sanjay Raut threatens legal action over Rs 14,000 crore paid to ineligible beneficiaries

Women enrolling for the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra.
(File Photo)

Claiming that nearly one crore beneficiaries were ineligible, Raut alleged the government knowingly allowed payments to continue before initiating verification. He also alleged that around 29,000 men and thousands of government employees had received benefits despite being ineligible.

“These 92 lakh are bogus beneficiaries. Without KYC and without scrutiny, around 29,000 men and thousands of government employees received money under the scheme. The government was aware of this,” he said.

Raut alleged that the scheme had been used “to buy votes” before the Assembly elections and questioned why the verification exercise began only after polling was over.

“Fadnavis and Shinde used government money to buy votes. The biggest question now is how the government is going to recover the money wrongly disbursed to ineligible beneficiaries?” he said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (ANI Photo)

He demanded that a criminal case be registered against the then Eknath Shinde-led government and sought recovery of the money from those responsible for approving the payments.

“A case of misappropriation of government money should be registered against the then Eknath Shinde cabinet under whose signatures these payments were made,” he said, adding that the personal assets of ministers and senior officials involved in approving the scheme should be attached and the money recovered.

Raut said removing beneficiaries from the scheme did not address the issue of money already disbursed. “You cannot remain silent simply because 92 lakh beneficiaries have now been excluded from the scheme. The question is how the government intends to recover the money,” he said.

The Maharashtra government has maintained that the verification exercise was undertaken to identify ineligible beneficiaries and has said recovery proceedings would be initiated only against categories such as male beneficiaries and government employees. Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare has previously said the government would not seek recovery from other beneficiaries whose payments were stopped after verification.