Mumbai: Women availing benefits of the Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra despite owning a four-wheeler will be identified and straightway disqualified as the state government weeds out illegitimate beneficiaries.
The Ladki Bahin scheme provides Rs 1,500 per month to women up to 65 years old with an annual family income below Rs 2.5 lakh. To qualify, no family member should be a government employee, the beneficiary must not own a four-wheeler, and they should not be receiving monthly assistance from any other government scheme. According to officials, over 21 lakh women in Pune alone have availed of the benefit, Indian Express reported.
The Congress and NCP(SP) criticised the government’s recent actions, calling them an “insult” to women and equating them to betrayal.
Jamsinh Girase, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Pune Zilla Parishad, stated, “Disqualifying them is the only action we propose to take. There will be no investigation or fines imposed,” the report stated.
Girase added that officials will not be conducting door-to-door verification and that RTO has been told to submit a list of such women. The process is expected to take a month.
Meanwhile, a woman beneficiary from Pimpri-Chinchwad’s Indrayani Nagar area said that even though she owns a four-wheeler, it was bought 10 years ago. “I lost my job more than three years back. I don’t get any salary. But I have a four-wheeler which was bought when I was working 10 years back. What do I do?,” she was quoted as saying in the report.
The decision has led to backlash from opposition parties as they accused the Fadnavis government of “insulting women” contending that having a four-wheeler does not mean having stable finances as many of them lost their jobs after the COVID pandemic and now are not in a state to pay their EMIs.
