Ladki Bahin Yojana: Maharashtra Halts Payments As 70 Lakh Beneficiaries Fail Verification

Following a large-scale e-KYC and eligibility verification exercise, the Maharashtra government has removed nearly 70 lakh women beneficiaries from the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. As a result, the next instalment of payments under the scheme has been temporarily suspended.

Introduced by then Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ahead of the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Ladki Bahin Yojana was one of the government's flagship welfare programmes. The scheme initially covered around 2.46 crore women across the state. However, after Aadhaar authentication, bank account verification and scrutiny of eligibility conditions, the number of beneficiaries receiving payments for February 2026 dropped to nearly 1.76 crore. Officials indicated that this figure could decline further as the verification process continues.

Minister of State for Women and Child Development (WCD) Meghana Bordikar told TOI that despite repeated deadline extensions and awareness campaigns, many beneficiaries failed to complete the mandatory e-KYC process.

"We extended the e-KYC deadline for nearly four to five months. Even after providing sufficient time, around 70 lakh women did not complete the process. This indicates that many of them were not genuinely eligible beneficiaries," Bordikar said.

The first phase of verification targeted families owning four-wheelers, those using tractors for agricultural purposes, and beneficiaries whose annual family income exceeded the prescribed limit of Rs 2.5 lakh. Following the second round of scrutiny, the number of beneficiaries reduced to around 2.4 crore. Further checks of bank accounts later revealed that the monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 was, in some cases, being deposited into accounts belonging to male family members. Authorities also identified government employees among the recipients, leading to their removal from the scheme.

Beneficiaries from the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe communities were additionally referred to their respective departments for further verification to determine whether they were already availing benefits under other welfare schemes.

Officials said the extensive verification drive has also delayed the release of instalments for March and April this year. Payments will resume once the process is completed, with eligible beneficiaries receiving the pending amounts directly in their bank accounts.

"We may also start recovery proceedings against women who allegedly received benefits despite not meeting eligibility conditions. A final decision on this matter is expected to be taken at the administrative and senior level. But here we cannot solely blame the women, it was the government and administrative responsibility to verify the details and documents before releasing the money," an official said on condition of anonymity to the New Indian Express.

"But at that time, votes of the women were important, which forced us to ignore the documents and release the amount and increase the beneficiaries numbers," the official added.

The Mukhyamantri Mazi Ladki Bahin scheme was launched to provide direct monthly financial assistance to women from economically weaker households. Under the programme, eligible women receive Rs 1,500 every month directly into their bank accounts. Initially, the scheme's annual expenditure was estimated at around Rs 45,000 crore. This was later revised to nearly Rs 36,000 crore and has now come down to approximately Rs 26,000 crore. The reduction in beneficiary numbers and efforts to curb expenditure are among the key reasons behind the latest decision.