Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Monday claimed that all state government departments were facing a fund crunch due to the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, The Indian Express reported.

The scheme, launched in June 2024, provides a monthly transfer of Rs 1,500 to women aged 21 to 65 whose families earn less than Rs 2.5 lakh a year.

The Ladki Bahin scheme is said to have played a key role in the Mahayuti alliance winning 230 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly in November.

The coalition comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena and the NCP group headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

Bhujbal, the MLA from the Yeola constituency of Nashik district, is a member of Pawar’s NCP group and the state food and civil supplies minister.

“I feel that the expenditure on the Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme is affecting the implementation of this [Anandacha Shidha],” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “Because almost Rs 40,000 to 45,000 crore are spent on this scheme and if you are to allocate for that, it surely will affect elsewhere.”

The minister added: “Therefore, some things cannot be done this year. One thing is sure that all departments are facing the fund crunch.”

He was speaking about reports that his department’s Aanandacha Shidha scheme, which provides a kit of grocery items at a concessional rate of Rs 100 to families with saffron ration cards during the festival season, would be stopped. Saffron cardholders fall in the Above Poverty Line category

The scheme costs roughly Rs 500 crore and benefits approximately 1.6 crore persons, The Indian Express reported.

Bhujbal said that the state will likely face financial problems “if we go on distributing money like this”.

The Ladki Bahin scheme has sparked controversy due to the strain it has placed on the state’s finances. Monthly scrutiny exercises have also flagged numerous instances of ineligible enrolments.

The state government spends Rs 3,700 crore to disburse the benefits to 2.41 crore beneficiaries each month under the scheme.

A review of the scheme in July found that more than 14,000 men in Maharashtra allegedly received a monthly payout under the Ladki Bahin Yojana for 10 months.

The Women and Child Development Department said that 14,298 men had enrolled in the scheme by misrepresenting their identities, leading to a loss of Rs 21.44 crore to the state exchequer.

Payments to their accounts have since been stopped.

This is not the first time that Bhujbal has flagged the financial strains related to the Ladki Bahin scheme

On August 5, he said that the state government would not provide food kits under the Aanandacha Shidha scheme this year due to the financial strain put on the state exchequer by the Ladki Bahin scheme.

In July, Bhujbal said that if the exchequer sets aside an amount of Rs 45,000 crore a year for Ladki Bahin, “then other expenses will have to bear the pressure”.

Also read: ‘Election stunt’: Anger, confusion among Maharashtra women as Ladki Bahin payments falter

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