Maha sweats over recovering Ladki Bahin, PM Kisan funds from 'ineligible' recipients

Weeks after the Mahayuti swept to power in Maharashtra on the back of popular schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana and the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, bureaucrats are scrambling to recover crores of rupees that were paid to ineligible recipients.

- Surendra P Gangan

According to government estimates, there are three million women who do not meet the eligibility criteria for Ladki Bahin but who got six installments of ₹1,500 per month and 1.2 million ineligible farmers in the state who got dole under the PM Kisan Yojana. The cumulative amount to be recovered is upwards of ₹4,000 crore.

Maharashtra has a fiscal deficit of ₹1,10,355 crore according to the budget presented in June 2024, and a revenue deficit of ₹20,151 crore. Last week, speaking to the media in Pune, finance minister Ajit Pawar conceded that the government had passed on the benefits of the schemes to recipients without ensuring their accounts were linked to Aadhaar. As reported earlier by this newspaper, one of the first decisions of the Devendra Fadnavis government has been to recalibrate the list of Ladki Bahin beneficiaries. The second aspect of that, and which may not be easy to execute, caution bureaucrats, is to recover the monies already paid to ineligible beneficiaries by the previous government.

The state, at present, pays ₹3,700 crore each month as direct cash benefit to 24.6 million women under the Ladki Bahin scheme. The women and child welfare department which implements the scheme has now begun collating data of other direct cash transfer schemes to verify eligibility of the Ladki Bahin beneficiaries. The department is also seeking data of income tax payees from the central government and data on the number of people who own four-wheelers from the state transport department to rule out those who are ineligible.