West Bengal Annapurna Yojana Update: 26 Lakh Applications Rejected; How To Check Your Application Status

West Bengal's major women's welfare scheme, the Annapurna Yojana also called Annapurna Bhandar, is undergoing a major screening exercise, after which the state government confirmed that 26 lakh applications out of the 1.6 crore received have been rejected during beneficiary verification.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced the update on July 1, at the official launch event of the scheme at Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, where he also confirmed that the first tranche of funds had already reached nearly 1.1 cr women beneficiaries.

Why 26 Lakh Annapurna Applications Were Rejected

According to the Chief Minister, the rejected applications were flagged mainly because of doubts about citizenship and domicile status.

Officials have said that rejections also cover cases where applicants did not meet other prescribed eligibility conditions, including women who were not permanent residents of West Bengal.

Migrating beneficiaries from the earlier Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, several categories have been excluded from automatic transfer into Annapurna Yojana, including beneficiaries identified as dead, shifted, deleted, or absentee electors during the SIR process, along with anyone found ineligible during the government's own verification drive.

What Is Annapurna Yojana

Annapurna Yojana, officially referred to as the Annapurna Bhandar Scheme, replaces the Lakshmir Bhandar programme that was run under the previous Trinamool Congress government. It was among the top promises in the BJP's "Bhoroshar Shopoth" manifesto for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, which the party won with 207 seats. Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as the state's first BJP Chief Minister on May 9, 2026.

Under the earlier Lakshmir Bhandar structure, eligible SC/ST women received Rs 1,700 per month while women from other categories received Rs 1,500. Annapurna Yojana removes this category-based difference altogether, offering a flat Rs 3,000 per month, or Rs 36,000 annually, to every eligible woman, transferred directly into Aadhaar-linked bank accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system.

The scheme officially came into effect on June 1, 2026, with the first round of DBT payments going out on June 3, benefiting more than 28 lakh women at launch. A second, much larger tranche followed on July 1, 2026, reaching close to 1.3 crore eligible women.

Eligibility Criteria For Annnapurna Bhandar Scheme

To qualify for Annapurna Yojana, applicants must meet the following conditions:

Applicants must be women who are permanent residents of West Bengal, aged between 25 and 60 years. They must not be income tax payers, and no member of their family should be a serving or retired government employee drawing a regular salary or pension. An active Aadhaar-linked bank account is mandatory, since the entire disbursal runs through DBT into the seeded account. Existing Lakshmir Bhandar beneficiaries are being migrated into the new scheme automatically in most cases, provided they are not among those excluded on citizenship, domicile, or electoral-roll grounds.

The application window for Annapurna Yojana runs from May 27, 2026, to August 25, 2026, giving eligible women a 90-day period to complete registration. Applications can be submitted through two channels:

How to Check Application Status Online

Step 1: Visit the official Social Registry West Bengal citizen portal,
Step 2: Select your district, and log in using your registered mobile number and OTP
Step 3: Once logged in, look for the beneficiary profile or "Track Application" section
Step 4: Where your Application Reference Number can be entered to view current status.

Steps to check status offline:

Visit your nearest BDO office or SDO office, carrying your Temporary Application ID, acknowledgement receipt, or registered mobile number. An official will check the backend records and inform you whether your application is under verification, approved, rejected, or pending correction.

Applicants can also independently verify whether their Aadhaar is correctly linked to their bank account, since DBT payments depend entirely on this, by logging into the myAadhaar portal and checking the "Bank Seeding Status" tab.