Scrap registration cut off date for Ladki Bahin scheme: Prithviraj Chavan to CM Eknath Shinde

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Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister (CM) Eknath Shinde, asking him to scrap the cut off time for to register for the state government's Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana so that all eligible women are able to avail the financial assistance provided under the scheme.

The August 31 cut off date should be scrapped and the scheme should be implemented as a social security right, the former CM stated in his letter to Shinde.

According to him, technical glitches are affecting the server of the official portal, and the site for registration is non-functional most of the time. He added that in several instances, women do not get the registration one-time password (OTP) for as long as six hours.

As a result of this, the women eligible for the scheme are worried that they will not be able to register themselves on time, Chavan wrote in the letter.

He added that the deadline for the registration was July 15 earlier and it was extended to August 31 following his demand to do so during the monsoon session.

He further said that the age limit for eligibility was also increased from 60 to 65 years following his intervention.

The Maharashtra government formally launched its ambitious 'Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana' on Saturday, PTI reported. During the launch, CM Shinde hinted at doubling the monthly stipend from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 for the eligible women under the scheme if the alliance is voted to power in elections.

"If we receive your support, we can manage to give you more than Rs 3,000," CM Shinde said at the launch event marked by the display of pyrotechnics on a specially-created ramp at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in the Balewadi area of Pune.

More than 1 crore women are expected to benefit from this scheme, whose launch coincided with the Rakshabandhan festivities beginning Monday.

The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government, facing a tough assembly polls battle against the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the coming months, came up with the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, months after a debacle in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

The scheme, modelled on the Madhya Pradesh government's 'Ladli Behna Yojana', provides monthly Rs 1,500 assistance to married, divorced, and destitute women in the 21-60 age group in the Rs 2.5-lakh annual family income ceiling.

(With PTI inputs)