Ladki Bahin Yojana: A big fraud has been exposed in the Maharashtra government’s ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’. According to the report, more than 14,000 men have taken advantage of this scheme by posing as women. Due to this, the government has suffered a loss of ₹ 21.44 crores.
Ladki Bahin Yojana: Maharashtra government’s ‘Larki Bahin Yojana’ has helped improve the lives of millions of women. But now a big fraud has come to light in this scheme. Many people were also taking advantage of this scheme who were not entitled to it and the shocking thing is that more than 14,000 men are also included in this.
How did the fraud happen?
The aim of Maharashtra government’s ‘Larki Bahin Yojana’ was to give ₹ 1,500 per month to poor women aged 21 to 65 years so that their health, nutrition and daily needs could be met. But as soon as the scheme started, large scale irregularities started coming to light.
Every month the government is spending ₹ 3,700 crore on this scheme, due to which about 2.41 crore women are getting direct help of ₹ 1,500. But some people took wrong advantage of this system.
The latest investigation has revealed that 14,298 men took money from this scheme for 10 months by claiming themselves to be women. Due to this, the government has suffered a loss of about ₹ 21.44 crores. Now payments from the accounts of all these people have been stopped.
Not only men, many women were also fake beneficiaries
In the investigation, not only more than 14,000 men, but lakhs of women were also caught taking advantage of the scheme in a fraudulent manner. The report of the Women and Child Development Department shows that in the last 12 months, a loss of about ₹ 1,640 crores was incurred only due to giving money to these ineligible beneficiaries.
In February, the department had said that about 5 lakh people have been excluded from the scheme. Among these, about 1.62 lakh women were such whose families had four-wheelers. About 2.87 lakh women, whose age was more than 65 years (these women are eligible under some other scheme). These women had been receiving the scheme money for the past 10 months, causing a loss of ₹431.7 crore to the government.
Apart from this, women who were the third woman in their family were also taking money every month, while the scheme clearly states that only two women from a family can get the benefit. The department detected about 7.97 lakh such cases, which cost the government ₹1,196 crore in the last one year.
Online registration became a problem
According to the department officials, this irregularity also increased because the entire application process was online and no verification was being done on the ground. Now the Women and Child Development Department has said that the eligibility will be re-checked with the help of the Income Tax Department and verification will be done in the field with the help of the district collectors.
What has happened so far?
In the investigation so far, payments of 26.34 lakh people have been stopped, who were not eligible for the scheme. At the same time, now only 2.25 crore women are left eligible for the scheme. Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare says that “Action will now be taken against those who were taking benefits by misleading the government. Further decision will be taken after discussion with the Chief Minister and Deputy CM.”
Statement of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar
Ajit Pawar said in clear words, “Larki Behan Yojana is only for poor women, if men have taken money in wrong way then recovery will be done from them. If they do not cooperate then strict action will be taken.”