Ladki Bahin Yojana: Benefits of 1.25 lakh Marathwada women may be stopped

A large-scale verification drive has exposed irregularities in the implementation of the Ladki Bahin Yojana in Marathwada, leading to recommendations to stop benefits for nearly 1.25 lakh women.

According to official information, Anganwadi workers, on the instructions of the Centre, carried out a detailed survey across the eight districts of Marathwada. They were tasked with scrutinising applications from women above the age of 65, as well as identifying households where two or more women were receiving benefits under the scheme.

The exercise revealed that out of 1.33 lakh applications from women aged above 65 years, 40,228 were found ineligible. In addition, 4,09,072 applications were checked for duplication within households, leading to the recommendation to disqualify 84,709 women found to be availing benefits alongside other female members of the same family.

The report notes that some beneficiaries above 65 years of age had produced false documents to claim the benefit. In certain cases, women had not received the monthly assistance for the past two to three months, with officials citing irregularities as the reason.

Altogether, it has been advised that the benefits of 1.25 lakh women be discontinued. The consolidated data has already been submitted to the government, which will now take a final decision on the matter.

The survey also highlighted that of the one lakh applications verified for age, nearly 50 per cent of women were found to be above 65 years. Similarly, in the scrutiny of duplicate beneficiaries within families, around 25 per cent of cases were deemed ineligible.

The government has been informed that the financial assistance to around 1.5 lakh women in the region should be halted until further review.