Ladki Bahin scheme: Over 3 million women get ₹3000 ahead of launch

MUMBAI: Five days before bhaubeej the state government deposited ₹3000 in over 3 million bank accounts of eligible beneficiaries of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana on Wednesday. The Mahayuti government’s ambitious scheme will be officially launched on Saturday by chief minister Eknath Shinde in Pune. As part of the scheme, women who earn less than ₹2.5 lakh a year will be given ₹1500 each month for five years.

The government has planned to deposit two installments, which add up to ₹6000 crore, for the first two months -- July and August – at the time of the launch. Of the 16.89 million applications received so far, 13.59 million have been declared eligible for the scheme after scrutiny. Of the eligible beneficiaries over 3 million are yet to link their Aadhaar numbers with their bank accounts.

The reason for the early start, said women and child welfare minister Aditi Tatkare, was “to avoid any last-minute glitches and test the preparedness of the mechanism”. She added that this was the first time that such a large amount was being transferred to accounts.

“Another few lakh accounts of beneficiaries will be credited with the mandatory funds between tomorrow and the day after, before the official launch of the scheme. We aim to deposit two installments amounting to ₹3000 in at least 5 million accounts at one go at its launch,” she said.

On the other hand, as a significant number of women are yet to link their Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts, Tatkare said, “We have directed our district administration and appealed to the applicants to do it on war footing in the next two days. By doing this, beneficiaries will be able to avail of other schemes in the future as well. We have been receiving lakhs of applications daily; in fact, on Tuesday, we received 0.75 million applications.” 14 million applications were submitted in July that have been scrutinized. “We expect the number of applications to cross 20 million, though we have made the provisions for 25 million,” she added.

Chief minister Shinde said, “We are conducting random trials to check if the money is reaching the beneficiaries properly; hence two installments were deposited. We have kept our word to our beloved sisters. The Opposition challenged the scheme in Bombay high court, which dismissed their petition. I have been telling our sisters to beware of these stepbrothers.”