Existing data of women beneficiaries to be used for 'Ladki Bahin' scheme

The existing data of women beneficiaries available with various departments will be used for the Maharashtra government's recently-announced 'Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin' scheme, an official said.

Officials from various departments held a meeting in this connection on Wednesday.

Under the scheme, announced ahead of state assembly elections due in October, eligible women will get Rs 1,500 per month.

"The idea is to use the existing data to reduce the burden of data collection to some extent," an official in the Women and Child Development (WCD) department said.

"Departments like Rural Development and Food and Civil Supplies already have the database of women beneficiaries, collected for older schemes. These departments have been asked to share the data with the Women and Child Development department which is going to implement the Ladki Bahin Yojana," an official from the Food and Civil Supplies department said.

The WCD department will consolidate the data, bank accounts and other required information, and share it with the IT department for disbursement of money.

"This existing data is comparatively easy to access and consolidate as it has been used from time to time for fund disbursement (of other schemes). New data generated by the women who wish to enrol in the Ladki Bahin scheme will pose a challenge," a WCD department official said.

"The application form can be filled through a mobile app as well as physical submission. But this data has to be scrutinised and verified, which is a humongous task given the short time we have," the official added.

The Eknath Shinde government has allocated Rs 25,000 crore for the Ladki Bahin Yojana through supplementary demands tabled during the ongoing monsoon session of the state legislature.