Pune: The Jan instalment under the Ladki Bahin scheme is likely to be disbursed only after mid-Feb, as the state govt is currently verifying the genuine beneficiaries affected by a glitch in the e-KYC, officials said on Thursday. Another reason for the delay, officials said, could be due to the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections scheduled to be held in 12 districts on Feb 7.While the Dec instalment was released early in Jan, the govt’s proposal to make an advance payout for Jan on Makar Sankranti was objected to by the State Election Commission. The commission clarified that although regular benefits under welfare schemes might continue during the election period, advance disbursement was not permissible.
The govt last week directed district collectors to identify genuine beneficiaries through anganwadi workers after a large number of women complained that they had not received payments for three-four months due to an error in the e-KYC form. A helpline number (181) was too opened, but many claimed they were unable to get clear responses.“The govt will not release funds unless the list of genuine beneficiaries is verified. Besides, with the elections around the corner, it is unlikely that money will be credited before mid-Feb,” a senior official said.Several women voiced concern over the prolonged delay over verification. “We waited for months. If our documents are not verified soon, this could become an unending wait,” a beneficiary from Pune district said.Another beneficiary pointed to administrative disruptions following the demise of deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar. “All files need the finance department’s clearance. As a cabinet reshuffle is on the cards, this process is bound to take longer,” a politician said.An error in the e-KYC resulted in more than 24 lakh women being wrongly classified as belonging to families of govt employees, which led to an abrupt halt to their monthly assistance of Rs 1,500. The women and child development department acknowledged that a wrongly framed question in the e-KYC form caused the error.The question, which read in Marathi, “Tumchya gharatle koni sarkari nokrit nahi na?” (Nobody in your family works for the govt, right?), confused many respondents, who answered “yes” instead of “no”. The system automatically interpreted this as confirmation that a family member was a govt employee and stopped payments.
