Registrations for Mahayuti's Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme cross 1 crore mark

Mumbai: Over one crore women have already registered for the Mahayuti government’s ambitious ‘Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’, under which it will give ₹1,500 per month to women from families whose annual income is below ₹2.5 lakh. Connectivity issues that were hampering the registration process have now been resolved, administrative officials informed the state cabinet on Tuesday, following they were asked to ensure that applicants’ Aadhar and bank accounts are linked for smooth transfer of money.

“We have crossed the one crore mark with regards to registrations for the Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme. Daily registrations have crossed 500,000 and nearly 60% of the applicants are married women,” said Aditi Tatkare, minister for women and child development. She said though 2.45 crore women were expected to sign up for the scheme when it was announced during the state budget, their response and the speed of enrollment indicate the actual number of beneficiaries may far outstrip the initial estimate.

Tatkare was speaking to reporters after attending the cabinet meeting which reviewed the status of the scheme. Officials who gave a presentation during the meeting told the cabinet that initial problems in registration related to connectivity and server issues had been resolved and the process had now picked up pace. With over 500,000 applications, Pune was at the top of the list of registrations, followed by Thane and Ahmednagar, the officials said.

Discussions during the meeting revealed that many women had opened single-holding bank accounts while applying for the scheme and if such accounts were not linked with Aadhar, it could pose problems during implementation. Accordingly, officials were directed to ensure the process of linking Aadhaar with bank accounts is completed before the completion of scrutiny of applications.

“Though political and social organisations are helping women to fill up applications, the final authorities are anganwadi workers, gram sevaks and ward officers. We have told them not to submit the applications online till all necessary documents are in order. This would avoid further complications,” said Tatkare. The list of eligible beneficiaries would be displayed publicly once the scrutiny process was completed, she added.

The state cabinet on Tuesday also decided to give an ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh to ASHA volunteers, anganwadi workers and group promoters in case of accidental death and ₹5 lakh for disability, and an amount of ₹1.05 crore was sanctioned for the same this year. The cabinet also approved a proposal to give 4% reservation to Divyang employees and officials during promotion.