Ladki Bahin Yojana – Maharashtra government’s ‘Ladki Behen Yojana’, which was aimed at providing financial assistance of Rs 1500 every month to economically weaker women, has now come into the limelight due to a fraud. A recent investigation by the government has revealed that about 14,298 men took advantage of the scheme with the help of fake documents, causing a loss of about ₹ 21.44 crore to the government treasury. Let us tell you that this scheme was started in August 2024 and is now under question.
How did this fraud happen?
During the beneficiary audit, it was revealed that these men got themselves registered for the scheme by using fake identity or papers to pretend to be women and kept availing financial benefits every month. This continued until the scheme was thoroughly reviewed. After this revelation, people have started questioning how the application verification process was so poor and which officials failed to monitor this entire system.
Preparation for action and toughness
Now the Maharashtra government has said that action will be taken against the culprits. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar clearly said that the money will be recovered from the men who have taken the benefit fraudulently and if they do not cooperate, legal action will be taken. Also, there were some women in the list of beneficiaries who are in government jobs and were not eligible as per the terms of the scheme, their names have already been removed. Pawar also said that as the review continues, fake beneficiaries will be removed.
This is not the first case when a scam has come to light in a welfare scheme of Maharashtra. Earlier, in schemes like sanitary napkin subsidy and Shiv Bhojan Thali, money was taken in the name of ineligible people. Now the state government is preparing to make the transparency and verification process of the scheme more strict, so that no one can take advantage of this in future.