Over 14,000 men receive Rs 21 crore in Ladki Bahin Scheme fraud in Maharashtra

The Ladki Bahin Yojana was introduced in August 2024 to give Rs 1,500 a month to women belonging to low-income families and aged between 21 and 65 years in Maharashtra

Over 14,000 men have been found getting money under Maharashtra's Ladki Bahin Yojana, a welfare scheme meant for women. A review by an official has shown that Rs 21.44 crore was given to 14,298 male recipients in ten months, CNN-News18 reported citing sources.

The Ladki Bahin Yojana was introduced in August 2024 to give Rs 1,500 a month to women belonging to low-income families and aged between 21 and 65 years. While conducting a routine audit, the authorities found that thousands of beneficiaries registered under the scheme were men who had applied by furnishing false or wrong details.

The issue is being probed. Authorities are checking the process of ineligible people being included in the beneficiary list, how the application was sanctioned, and what were the lapses in the verification process.

No official response has been made so far by the Women and Child Development Department, which is running the scheme.

The report indicated the state government would take disciplinary action against officials found responsible for the lapse and start proceedings to recover the misused funds.

The same problem had been reported earlier in other welfare schemes of the state such as the Sanitary Napkin Subsidy Scheme and the Shiv Bhojan Thali, where there was a discrepancy in the selection of the beneficiaries and the distribution of funds.