The Vishnu Deo Sai-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh has notified the much awaited ‘Mahtari Vandan Scheme’ on Saturday. The cash assistance scheme, wherein eligible women will get Rs 1,000 per month will be implemented from March 1 and the first installment will be paid the same month, right ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Mahtari Vandan Scheme, announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah as one of the 13 ‘guarantees of (PM Narendra) Modi’ ahead of the November 2023 assembly polls, is considered one of the game changers for the BJP in the state elections.
The scheme is on the lines of the ‘Laadli Behna’ scheme in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and the ruling BJP expects it to have a direct impact on the 1.02 crores women voters in the state who will be exercising franchise in the impending Lok Sabha polls.
The Sai cabinet had approved the scheme in a meeting held earlier this week and the notification with details of the scheme was issued today by the state government.
Women over 21 years of age—married, widowed, divorced or abandoned—will be able to apply for the scheme between February 5 and 20. However, women from families that have any income tax payers, government employees, present or former members of parliament, members of legislative assemblies, or chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of any board, corporation and commissions of the union or state government will not be eligible.
The cash assistance will be paid to the eligible women through Aadhaar card-linked bank accounts. The women who already receive some pension or other from union or state governments will be paid only the difference amount under the scheme. For example, if a woman is receiving a pension of Rs 800 per month under some scheme, she will be paid only Rs 200 under the scheme.
Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain conducted a video conference meeting with officials concerned and directed smooth implementation of the scheme. He has asked the officials to chart out time-bound programmes to ensure all eligible women get benefit of the scheme. Also, they were asked to conduct special camps at gram panchayat and civic wards level to get applications from the women.
District level control rooms are also to be set up for proper implementation.
Shammi Abidi, secretary of the women and child development department, the nodal department for implementation of the scheme, gave all the details during the meeting. The government has said that the scheme aims at economic self-reliance and health and nutritional status improvement of the women.
