Pawar was speaking at a convention of grape producers in Wakad of Pimpri-Chinchwad, organised by the Maharashtra State Draksha Bagaitdar Sangh (Express Photo)
As it has emerged that there are over two lakh bogus beneficiaries of Ladki Bahin Yojana, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar asked if the government should stop the financial assistance scheme to womenfolk altogether. ”Should we close down the scheme?” Ajit Pawar shot back when reporters in Pune sought to ask him about the ”highest number of” bogus beneficiaries in Pune district where he is Guardian Minister.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, ”The scheme is being investigated. Once the probe is over, we will stop the payments to those who are ineligible.”
Earlier in the day, Pawar was speaking at a convention of grape producers in Wakad of Pimpri-Chinchwad, organised by the Maharashtra State Draksha Bagaitdar Sangh. ”A lot of news is circulating about Ladki Bahin Yojana. I will discuss the issue with the Women and Child Welfare Minister when I go to Mumbai. It seems those who are not eligible are also taking the benefit of the scheme. We will have to verify the documents again. I will hold a meeting with the officials,” Pawar said.
At the event, he also hit out at the grape farmers saying, ”I have received complaints that grape farmers are not finding labourers…I don’t understand that…Should I not pay financial assistance to women just because you people are not finding labourers to work in your fields?” he asked.
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‘Loksatta’ the sister publication of the Indian Express reported that the highest number of bogus beneficiaries have been found in Pune district at 2.04 lakh, followed by 1.25 lakh bogus beneficiaries in Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Thane district. In Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’, Nagpur district 95,000 bogus beneficiaries have been found.
Similarly, 1.25 lakh bogus beneficiaries have been found in Water Resources Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s Ahilyanagar district. In Nashik district from where Ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Dada Bhuse, Manikrao Kokate and Narhari Zirwal hail, 1.86 lakh bogus beneficiaries have been found. In Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar from where Sena Minister Sanjay Shirsat hails, 1.04 lakh bogus beneficiaries have been found.
Reacting to the development, Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said it has been clear that the Mahayuti government had offered bribes to win elections in Maharashtra. ”Besides indulging in ”vote chori,” the Mahayuti Government and its leaders had given bribes to womenfolk to get their vote. Will the ED and CBI now step in or remain mere spectators. The Congress demands that cases should be filed against the Mahayuti leaders and ministers in whose districts bogus beneficiaries have been found. This was a pre-planned conspiracy to win the election by hook or crook,” he said, adding that women should not be held responsible and no action should be taken against them.
Expressing his shock, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar said, ”It is surprising that fake applications were accepted and even approved. The government had all the mechanisms in place to verify and re-verify the documents submitted by the women. It is extremely to shocking to find that highest number of beneficiaries are from districts of two Deputy Chief Ministers.”
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AAP spokesperson Mukund Kirdat said, ”With the highest number of beneficiaries in their districts, it is clear that these two parties, NCP and Shiv Sena who are partners of BJP in Mahayuti Government, went all out to secure votes and seats for them. They seemed to have indulged in all kinds of illegality, offering bribes to win votes. Action should be initiated against them rather than the womenfolk. This is because the government ministers and leaders in the bid to win elections did not even scrutinise the applications. They just approved it. It has emerged that at 26.34 women have benefitted though they were not eligible.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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