New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Hitting out at AAP leaders for raising doubts, BJP National General Secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam said on Thursday that the Delhi government’s Rs 2,500 monthly financial assistance for women will be available to eligible beneficiaries from March 8 as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Amid strong indications from Delhi government functionaries that the scheme will be open to 15-20 lakh women with a family annual income of up to Rs 3 lakh, Gautam told IANS, “The repeated questions by AAP leaders over the women’s scheme is a tactic to divert attention from the scams being exposed by CAG reports.”
“The AAP leaders should tell us when will Arvind Kejriwal fulfil his three-year-old promise to Punjab women of giving them a monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000,” Gautam said.
The Rs 2,500 per month scheme for women in Delhi is a commitment by PM Modi and even the AAP leaders know that it would be fulfilled, said Gautam, indicating March 8 – International Women’s Day – as the date of launch of the scheme.
The AAP leaders in the city have been running a countdown campaign in the run-up to March 8, the promised launch date for the women’s scheme. On Thursday, party workers holding banners of “2 more days to go” held a protest in central Delhi.
A source in the Delhi government said a IT platform is ready for online registration of beneficiaries of the women’s scheme with special attention on multi-level antecedent verification to keep out “bogus or fake” names like in the case of the Union government’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programme.
Earlier on Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta held a dialogue with women at Delhi Assembly to get their opinion on the women’s financial assistance scheme and other issues, including security, sanitation, education and women’s increased participation in governance.
She said the BJP government is committed to deliver the monthly Rs 2,500 each to women and slammed the AAP for its failed attempt to build pressure on the scheme’s timeline. “We will work as per our agenda, they do not need to dictate anything,” she said after the meeting.
The suggestions given by women are likely to be incorporated in Delhi Budget 2025-26, scheduled to be presented from March 24-26.
The Chief Minister also launched a WhatsApp number 9999962025 for crowd sourcing ideas for the Budget which will be a first by a BJP government in Delhi after 27 years.
CM Gupta said the objective of public dialogue on the Budget is to develop ‘Viksit Delhi’ with public cooperation.
–IANS
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