Amid Opposition backlash, govt says 10 lakh Ladki Bahin beneficiaries failed income eligibility test | Mumbai News

According to officials, the beneficiary count has come down from around 2.4 crore to nearly 1.6 crore after Electronic Know Your Customer(e-KYC) verification and cross-checking with multiple government databases.

The largest category of exclusions involved around 10 lakh women who were found ineligible after their records were matched with Income Tax Department data. Under the scheme, women aged between 21 and 65 years from families with an annual income below Rs 2.5 lakh are eligible for a monthly assistance of Rs. 1,500. Officials said another two lakh beneficiaries were removed after crossing the upper age limit of 65 years, while 74,000 beneficiaries were found to be below the minimum eligible age of 21.

Another 4.40 lakh beneficiaries were found to be family members of government employees, making them ineligible under the scheme guidelines.

Verification with Regional Transport Office records also led to the exclusion of around 1.80 lakh women who had vehicles registered in their names.

The scrutiny exercise further detected around 14,000 government employees who had availed of benefits despite being ineligible. Recovery proceedings have been initiated against them. An equal number of male beneficiaries were also found to have received assistance under the women-only welfare scheme, prompting recovery action.

Officials said the exercise also identified beneficiaries receiving assistance under multiple welfare schemes, including the Ladki Bahin Yojana, Namo Shetkari Samman Yojana and Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana. While eligible beneficiaries would continue receiving assistance under one scheme, duplication of benefits would be discontinued.

The government also found discrepancies in the KYC details of nearly 25 lakh beneficiaries. Officials said the records were subsequently corrected and fresh verification could be conducted where necessary.

The large-scale exclusions have intensified the political debate around the scheme, one of the Mahayuti government’s flagship welfare programmes. While the Opposition has alleged that the reduction in beneficiaries reflects the state’s financial strain, the government insists the exercise was necessary to weed out ineligible recipients and prevent misuse of public funds.

This is not the first time irregularities have been detected in the scheme. Information accessed by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act last year showed that at least 12,431 men and at least 12,915 government employees had received benefits of the welfare programme.  the actual beneficiaries were. The people of Maharashtra deserve complete transparency,” Sule said.