Mumbai, June 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) on Wednesday alleged that the Mahayuti government came to power in Maharashtra after "buying" the votes of one crore women in the 'Ladki Bahin Yojana' using government money, calling it a "global scam" in which the women were deceived in Maharashtra.
The party has demanded a probe by a sitting High Court judge after around 80 lakh women became ineligible to receive benefits under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana post an e-KYC process.
In an editorial in the party's mouthpiece 'Saamana', the party alleged that the government was involved in a scam, and for this, their property should be seized.
The editorial said that it was no secret that the Devendra Fadnavis-Eknath Shinde-Ajit Pawar won the Maharashtra Assembly elections through "manipulation". "Right in the middle of the elections, these three 'brothers' introduced the 'Ladki Bahin Yojana' and the state government announced a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500 to 2.38 crore women. There was intense competition among the three of them to hold these women's rallies."
The editorial said that citing the non-completion of 'KYC', as many as 80 lakh women were declared ineligible. This means these individuals indiscriminately diverted government funds into the accounts of millions of ineligible women to buy their votes and win elections. “In this whole corrupt game, our Election Commission played the role of the deaf, mute, and blind. The women voted for this trio in exchange for Rs 1,500 monthly. Their vote count 'swelled' by roughly one crore, and these people came to power through such corrupt means,” it alleged.
"However, the truth behind the disqualification of the beneficiaries of the Ladki Bahin Yojana is now out in the open. The government had been distributing money to these ineligible beneficiaries for the past year and a half. By December 2024, more than Rs 17,000 crore had been distributed in this manner. This money did not come out of the pockets of the ruling trio. If this distribution of money is illegal, the government will have to recover it,” remarked the editorial.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena said that the recovery should not be made from the purses of the ineligible beneficiary women. "Instead, this squandered money must be recovered from those who indulged in this extravagance and misappropriation. It is necessary to seize the movable and immovable properties of this trio -- one Chief Minister and two Deputy Chief Ministers. Anti-corruption cases should be registered against the government machinery that distributed thousands of crores to ineligible women without any verification, and those responsible should be dismissed -- especially the then-Secretary of the concerned department,” said the Thackeray camp.
According to the editorial, the trio confessed that women voted overwhelmingly because they were given benefits under the Ladki Bahin Yojana. “Now, this distribution of money to women has proven to be corrupt and illegal. It stands proven that government money was wrongfully distributed to millions of women. Furthermore, these very women voted for the 'trio' currently in power. Therefore, the Election Commission must declare the voting by such women invalid and announce fresh elections in Maharashtra,” it argued.
The Thackeray camp further alleged that the beneficiaries under the Ladki Bahin Yojana and Skill Development Schemes "represent the biggest scam".
The party demanded that the misappropriation in such schemes should be investigated by a sitting High Court judge.
The editorial sarcastically claimed that there is absolutely no possibility that the ruling dispensation in the state will take or allow the aforementioned actions, as the 'KYC' reason these people are putting forward today is a process they should have completed before implementing the scheme. "But they wanted to win the election. Therefore, the scheme was implemented indiscriminately across the board. Now that there are no elections, they are remembering things like KYC, CAG audits, and CAG reports,” it commented.
Source: IANS
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