Pune: The state govt has finalised 1.66 crore beneficiaries under its flagship Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana and excluded around 66 lakh people after completing a statewide verification and mandatory e-KYC exercise.The June instalment of financial assistance has already been credited to the accounts of all eligible women, the women and child development (WCD) department confirmed on Saturday.The verification exercise, which included scrutiny of beneficiary records and electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC), was undertaken to identify ineligible or duplicate beneficiaries and ensure that only eligible women continue to receive the scheme’s monthly assistance of Rs 1,500.Minister of state for women and child development Meghana Sakore-Bordikar told TOI that the exercise had been completed and the beneficiary database had been finalised.“All verification and e-KYC processes have been completed. Following the scrutiny, the final number of eligible beneficiaries stands at 1.66 crore. Around 66 lakh beneficiaries were excluded as they did not complete the mandatory e-KYC process. The June instalment has been credited to the accounts of all eligible beneficiaries,” Sakore-Bordikar said.She said the verification also involved checking whether beneficiaries were govt employees, income-tax payers, or recipients of other govt schemes, which made them ineligible. “Male beneficiaries identified in the database were also removed,” she added.Sakore-Bordikar further told TOI that in some genuine cases, women had approached district women and child development officials to ensure they were not removed from the beneficiary list due to technical issues during verification.Launched on June 28, 2024, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana provides Rs 1,500 per month through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to eligible women aged 21 to 65 years whose annual family income does not exceed Rs 2.5 lakh. It is one of the Mahayuti govt’s flagship welfare programmes and accounts for a significant share of the state’s social welfare expenditure.The finalisation of the beneficiary database marks the culmination of a year-long verification exercise initiated after concerns were raised about ineligible beneficiaries receiving financial assistance. Earlier, the WCD department had said that 2.63 crore women had registered under the scheme, of whom 2.47 crore were found eligible and began receiving benefits.The subsequent e-KYC and eligibility verification exercise was undertaken to remove duplicate and ineligible beneficiaries and create a verified database for future disbursals. The process included Aadhaar authentication and scrutiny of beneficiary records to identify women who had not completed e-KYC, those whose annual family income exceeded the prescribed limit, govt employees and their family members, income-tax payers and other applicants who did not meet the eligibility criteria.The scheme also came under scrutiny following observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its audit of Maharashtra’s finances for 2024-25. The CAG flagged deficiencies in budget estimation and expenditure management under the Ladki Bahin scheme, including Rs 3,541 crore spent beyond the approved budget provision. The audit recommended strengthening beneficiary verification, financial controls and expenditure monitoring to ensure that assistance reaches only eligible women.Officials said the completion of the verification exercise has resulted in a validated beneficiary database that will now serve as the basis for all future payments under the scheme.
