Changes to be made in Ladki Bahin: Ajit

MUMBAI: In order to minimise the financial stress on the state exchequer, burdened by populist schemes announced ahead of the Assembly elections last year, on Monday deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said changes will be made in the Mahayuti government’s flagship Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana. While Pawar did not specify the nature of changes, he emphasised that the scheme will not be discontinued, even as some others will be axed.

Pawar, who also holds the finance portfolio, made the announcement while replying to concerns raised by legislators over the scheme. “Citizens who do not belong to the economically impoverished class have been getting benefits under the Ladki Bahin scheme. It happened because it was inaugurated in haste by the state government,” said Pawar.

He however added that the government will not recover money doled out to ineligible candidates. “Instead, we have now requested all of them to withdraw their names from the scheme, the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested people to withdraw gas subsidy,” he informed.

Incidentally, soon after assuming office chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had stated the list of beneficiaries would be revisited as many undeserving candidates had made it in.

Pawar’s announcement also comes amid concerns of funds crunch in the state’s coffers, with allegations that the government is diverting money from other departments to keep the populist scheme running. Last week, social justice minister from Shiv Sena Sanjay Shirsat said the finance department had diverted ₹7,000 crore from the kitty of social justice and tribal development department to pay the Ladki Bahin beneficiaries despite opposition by his department.

The state government has set aside ₹36,000 crore for the scheme in the state budget for the year 2025-26, reducing ₹10,000 crore from its original purse of ₹46,000 crore announced ahead of the Assembly elections. Under the scheme, the government provides a direct cash of ₹1,500 per month to women between the ages of 21 and 65, whose annual income is below ₹2.5 lakh. However, there are several riders, which the women who signed up had ignored and the erstwhile Eknath Shinde-led government also did not follow the verification process to appease women voters.

He also responded to the allegations made by Shirsat, who had claimed that provision for the schemes related to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities has been reduced.

“This is not true. In fact, we have proposed a rise in the funds up to 40% in schemes related to SC and ST communities,” Pawar said and elaborated, “In 2024-25, the provision for SC-related schemes was ₹15,895 crore. For 2025-26 except Ladki Bahin, the provision for schemes related to the SC community is ₹18,698 crore – which indicates an increase of 19%.”

On discontinuing other schemes, Pawar said, “All schemes are being reviewed from time to time and some are being scrapped. There should not be duplication of schemes and money should not be wasted,” he emphasized.

In a written reply to a question, Pawar said the government has not stopped the ‘Shiv Bhojan Thali’ (a scheme launched by the erstwhile MVA government, where a thali of balanced meal is made available for ₹10, and the remaining expenditure borne by the government ) and ‘Anandacha Shidha’ (where four food items are provided at a concessional rate) schemes launched by the previous Eknath Shinde government, “which were questioned earlier”.