As many as 14,298 men have availed benefits under Maharashtra government's Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojan scheme, which is exclusively meant for women. These men received a total of 21.44 crore over a period of ten months. This information has been disclosed by official sources. When the state government conducted a verification of the scheme's beneficiaries, this irregularity came to light.
The scheme was launched in August 2024, and during that time, 14,298 men were included in the list of beneficiaries. This has raised serious questions: Who included these men? Who verified them and is responsible for them? How did men manage to misuse a women-centric scheme? Who is accountable for this lapse? Verification against data from the Public Distribution System (PDS) has revealed even more serious concerns.
Apart from it 2,36,014 beneficiaries are suspected to be men who registered using female names to claim the benefits. Verification work is currently underway. After it was found that 14,298 men were drawing monthly stipends of 1,500, those payments have now been stopped. This raises another critical question, will the government recover the money already paid to these ineligible recipients?
According to the scheme guidelines, individuals over 65 years of age are not eligible, as they already receive financial support under other state government schemes.
Despite this, it was found that 2,87,803 elderly women above 65 years have availed benefits under the scheme. They collectively received 431.70 crore in their bank accounts over ten months. These beneficiaries will now be removed from the scheme, which will save the government 518 crore annually.
Although the rules state that no more than two women from the same family are allowed to benefit from the scheme, 7,97,751 cases have surfaced where more than two women from a single household availed benefits. No final decision has been made yet on removing them from the list, but until now, these women have collectively received 1,196.62 crore. The state government spends 42,000 crore annually on the Ladki Bahin scheme.