Mumbai: In what will surely be an embarrassment for the Maharashtra government, it has come to light that thousands of men have fraudulently received financial benefits under the Ladki Bahin Yojana.
An audit conducted by Maharashtra’s Women & Child Development Department (WCD) found that 14,298 men fraudulently received the direct cash benefit for 10 months, amounting to Rs 21.44 crore, under the scheme meant for women in the state.
These men managed to manipulate the online registration system and register themselves as female beneficiaries, causing a massive loss to the state exchequer.
The Maharashtra government launched the Ladki Bahin Yojana months before the 2024 Assembly elections, promising Rs 1,500 per month to women aged between 21 and 65 years whose families earned less than Rs 2.5 lakh annually.
It turned out to be a game-changer for the Mahayuti coalition, helping the BJP-led coalition supported by Shiv Sena and NCP factions, return to power with a resounding sweep.
The scheme was controversial as it placed an unprecedented burden on the state’s finances. Ineligible beneficiaries were detected during the monthly scrutiny exercise, and now, this revelation of men benefiting from the scheme.
Even as payments have been stopped to these accounts, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has expressed displeasure over the misuse of the scheme.
“Ladki Bahin scheme was launched to help poor women. There is absolutely no reason why men should be its beneficiaries. We will recover the money given to them. If they do not cooperate, further action will be taken,” PTI quoted Ajit as saying.
The state government spends Rs 3,700 crore to pay 24.1 million beneficiaries under the Ladki Bahin Yojana.
The WCD scrutiny estimates that the state has lost an overall Rs 1,640 crore in the last 12 months by paying hundreds of thousands of ineligible beneficiaries, including men.
In February, the WCD department, which implements the scheme, said that around 500,000 beneficiaries had been dropped, including around 162,000 women whose families owned four-wheelers, and 287,000 beneficiaries who were over 65 years of age (they are eligible for benefits under a different scheme).
The monthly payout was also being received by women who were the third member of a family to benefit under the Ladki Bahin scheme. They had fraudulently enrolled even though only two women from a family are entitled to sign up.
