Fadnavis govt to ask ‘ineligible’ Ladki Bahin beneficiaries to return money; NCP(SP) warns stir
Minister Aditi Tatkare said the government is undertaking the cross-verification and around 4,000 women have already come forward and informed that they were ineligible under the Ladki Bahin scheme.
Women in Maharashtra return ineligible benefits under Ladki Bahin Yojana as government cross-verifies applications. (Source: File Photo)
Ladki Bahin scheme: More than a month after it came to power by banking heavily on the Ladki Bahin Yojana, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti Government in Maharashtra has decided to track down women who have availed of its benefits despite being ineligible.
Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP) said it will not allow the government to humiliate women who voted it to power and warned of protests. The Ladki Bahin scheme offers Rs 1,500 per month to every woman aged 21 to 65 with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh.
You have exhausted your monthly limit of free stories.
Read more stories for free with an Express account.
Speaking to reporters in Shirdi Saturday, Minister for Women and Child Welfare Aditi Tatkare said, “We are undertaking the cross-verification process. Those who are ineligible and still availed of the benefits of the scheme will be asked to return the money.”
Tatkare, who belongs to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, said the cross-verification is happening in five areas. “One of them is the criteria of annual income of up to Rs 2.50 lakh. Those with a yearly income above Rs 2.50 lakh are being scrutinised. Besides, we have also received complaints that women who have four-wheelers have also availed of the benefits. Then there are married women who are living outside Maharashtra but still took the benefit… We have also found duplicate applications… Besides, it has been found that some have taken the benefit of two different government schemes.”
Tatkare, however, added that some ineligible women have come forward themselves and started returning the money. “I want to thank the womenfolk who have taken the honest stand of returning the money after realising that they were not eligible for the scheme,” she said.
The minister said around 4,000 women have already come forward in this manner. “This is an approximate number. There could be more women who are ineligible. In December, we received some 100-150 forms from women who were ineligible and this month, we are receiving such forms on a large-scale,” she said.
The cross-verification, being done in tandem with the transport department and the income tax department is “a continuous process and it will be carried out consistently”, she mentioned.
Story continues below this ad
The money returned will go to the government treasurer. “Who says we are not taking back the money? We are in touch with the finance department and the planning department. These departments will help us create a separate head and through it the money will go to the government treasury. This refunded money will be used for other public projects,” Tatkare said.
The minister appealed to women to come forward and return the money if they availed of the scheme’s benefit despite being ineligible.
Reacting to Tatkare’s statement, the NCP (SP) spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said his party will not allow the Mahayuti government to humiliate womenfolk in this manner. “First, the government doled out the amount without any scrutiny. This was done intentionally and brazenly to get the votes of women beneficiaries. And now when the government has come to power through the votes, the womenfolk are being shown the door. This is injustice and a deliberate attempt to humiliate women. Our party will not allow this,” Tapase said.
NCP(SP) leader Vidya Chavan, meanwhile, warned of protests. “As per the information available from government sources, out of the 2.5 crore women who have availed of the benefit of the scheme, at least 65 lakh will be ineligible. If the government decides to make women ineligible on such a large scale after getting the benefit of their vote and coming to power, we will take to the streets and not allow the government to play such a cheating game,” she said.
Story continues below this ad
The BJP emerged as the single-largest party in the recently held Assembly polls in the state, winning 132 seats out of the 149 it contested. The Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde won 57 and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar bagged 41 seats. Together, the Mahayuti secured 230 seats out of the 288 in Maharashtra.
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
