Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Assembly witnessed a heated exchange on the final day of the Monsoon Session over the Mahatari Vandan Yojana, with the Congress accusing the BJP government of manipulating beneficiary figures before staging a walkout.
Congress MLA Umesh Patel raised the issue in the House, claiming that the scheme’s official portal has remained inaccessible since March 2024. He sought details on the total number of eligible beneficiaries who received financial assistance till June 2026 and the reasons why several women were excluded from the scheme.
Responding to the query, Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Rajwade defended the government, saying it was committed to good governance and did not need lessons from the opposition on how to function. Her remarks sparked protests from the opposition, leading to sloganeering inside the House.
Rajwade informed the Assembly that the government had received 70,27,154 applications, of which 70,09,658 eligible women received the first installment under the scheme. By June 2026, the number of beneficiaries stood at 68,54,003.
The minister said that 1,55,600 applicants became ineligible due to death, failure to complete e-KYC, or because they fell under the income tax payer category. She also clarified that technical issues related to e-KYC caused delays in nearly 2% of payments.
Questioning the government’s figures, Umesh Patel claimed that around 36,000 women were awaiting e-KYC verification in May 2026, while another 55,000 names had been removed from the beneficiary list, affecting nearly 1 lakh women. In response, Laxmi Rajwade stated that 1.23 lakh registered women had passed away.
When Patel asked when the portal would reopen for new applications, Rajwade replied that the government had started disbursing funds within two months of assuming office and urged the opposition not to teach the government how to function. The exchange triggered fresh protests, after which Congress MLAs staged a walkout from the Assembly.
