Overview
- The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP-led state government of enrolling women in the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana before the 2024 assembly polls and later excluding about 62 lakh beneficiaries after enforcing mandatory electronic KYC.
- Party officials say roughly 38 percent of beneficiaries were removed for failing e-KYC and that many poor women could not complete the process because they lack smartphones, internet access or the digital literacy to navigate captcha-based checks.
- The Congress cited a Comptroller and Auditor General report showing sanctioned allocations of ₹29,732 crore and reported expenditure of ₹33,237 crore, leaving an unexplained difference of ₹3,541 crore that it wants the state to explain.
- State coalition spokespeople have rejected claims of widespread fraud while acknowledging some wrongful payments to about 29,000 men and saying those sums will be recovered and the scheme will continue.
- Critics warn that the scheme's fiscal strain was flagged earlier by the state finance department at an estimated annual cost near ₹44,000 crore and say failure to restore benefits could deepen hardship for excluded women while prompting calls for an independent inquiry.