Maharashtra Ladki Bahin Yojana

ALTHOUGH Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde are strongly favouring the continuation of the Mahayuti government s flagship Mukhymantri Ladki Bahin Yojana , the scheme finds itself on a sticky wicket. The Opposit... ALTHOUGH Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde are strongly favouring the continuation of the Mahayuti government’s flagship ‘Mukhymantri Ladki Bahin Yojana’, the scheme finds itself on a sticky wicket. The Opposition has once again raised the decibel level, seeking cancellation of the scheme which is largely credited with bringing the Mahayuti government to power once again in Maharashtra in 2024. First it was Shinde who made it clear that the government will not stop the scheme. Speaking in Ahilyanagar last week, he said, “The Ladki Bahin Yojana will not be stopped come what may. The scheme is intended to make women independent and self-sufficient.” And on Tuesday before the weekly cabinet meeting in Mumbai, the chief minister backed his deputy. “We will never close down the Ladki Bahin Yojana. It is one of the largest welfare schemes of its kind being implemented by any state in the country,” he said. Fadnavis said when the scheme was launched, the government had allowed women to self-certify their eligibility as many did not have the required documents. “And subsequently when we carried out verification, we found several men had taken benefit of it. Besides, women from families of government employees too had become beneficiaries, which was not allowed,” he said. The Opposition has been describing it as the biggest fraud committed on the electorate of Maharashtra by the ruling parties. The latest trigger for the Opposition’s onslaught relates to dropping of over 80 lakh women beneficiaries from the scheme. The names of women beneficiaries were omitted after the April 30 deadline for e-KYC (Know Your Customer). “The government had provided an eight-month window for women beneficiaries to complete the e-KYC process, which would help them continue getting Rs 1,500 financial assistance. Many failed to do so,” the chief minister said of the move to weed out names of ineligible beneficiaries. When the scheme was launched, it had 2.4 crore beneficiaries. Now the number has dropped to 1.7 crore. The Opposition believes that the latest move of the government to drop 80 lakh names indicates that the scheme is heading for a closure. “In the Ladki Bahin scheme, which had 2.47 crore beneficiaries before the elections, this government has deleted the names of 81 lakh ‘beloved sisters’. KYC is merely an excuse; the real target is to shut down the scheme by deleting the names of these beneficiaries in phases,” said NCP-SP MLA Rohit Pawar. The MLA asked, “If the government implemented this scheme right before the elections without any KYC, and is now labeling these ‘beloved sisters’ as bogus beneficiaries, is this not a case of the government committing fraud by cheating these sisters? If the government harasses these sisters in any way or talks about recovering the money, it