With the Assembly polls drawing closer, after giving five ‘revdis’ (freebies) including free DTC bus rides to women, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced his sixth freebie, of giving monthly assistance of Rs 1,000 to women in Delhi each month, under the ‘Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman’ Yojna. He also promised the amount would be raised to Rs 2,100 if the AAP government returned to power. The scheme was approved by the Delhi Cabinet despite objections by the Planning Department and Finance Department.
The scheme needs Rs 4,560 Crore annually for the year 2025-26. The scheme was initially announced in the 2024-25 Budget with an allocation of Rs 2,000 Crore. The scheme, however, seemed to have hit the bureaucratic logjam with the Finance department flagging budgetary constraints. The scheme is on the lines of ‘Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’ in Maharashtra, ‘Ladli Behna Yojna’ in Madhya Pradesh, ‘Grahalaxmi’ scheme of Kerala, ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urumai’ of Tamil Nadu and ‘Laxmir Bhandar’ of West Bengal that played a major role for the ruling party to defeat anti-incumbency factor.
Addressing a press conference along with Chief Minister Atishi, Kejriwal announced the Delhi Cabinet has approved the scheme and women can begin their registration from Friday. However, he clarified the elections are likely to be announced soon and therefore the money could be credited in beneficiaries’ accounts only after the polls as the date for the crucial polls would be announced in the next 10 to 15 days.
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, meanwhile, said if the Model Code of Conduct comes into force after January 13, the first installment will be transferred into the bank accounts of eligible women before elections.
The Planning Department in its noting said that as against the the estimated Revenue Receipts of Rs 65034.69 Crore during 2024-25, total expenditure of Rs 77700 crore (including Expenditure on Programs/ Projects and Other Expenditure) is projected and the gap’ between receipts and total expenditure i.e. deficit is proposed to be covered by NSSF Loan.’ and unspent balance. As the opening balance is about to exhausted, therefore, implementation’ of proposed new scheme involves huge amount of funds i.e. Rs 4560 crore through Loan is not appropriate and good for the financial health of the Government.
As per Revised Estimates 2024-25, an amount of Rs 10995 crore is kept for various subsidy schemes and subsidy like expenditure (GIA to DTC and ways & means advance to DJB), which is around 14.15% of the total projected expenditure of Rs 77700 crore in- RE 2024-25. After adding the amount of Rs 4560 crore of the proposed scheme, the budget for subsidy like schemes will be around 21% of the total expenditure. Therefore, after implementation of the proposed scheme MMSY, there would be extra financial burden over finances of Delhi government in coming years and will hamper the capital expenditure to be incurred on the various developments. “Without a long-term vision, the scheme risks becoming an ineffective short-term measure that fails to deliver sustainable empowerment,” it added.
In its noting, the Finance Department said it is advised to not to bring the draft cabinet note before the Council of Ministers till a concrete scheme with verifiable data and road map is prepared for consideration of the Council of Ministers. The observations by the Finance Department was rejected by the Delhi finance Minister who noted in the cabinet note that this scheme is extremely important for the empowerment of women of Delhi and Studies across the world from developing countries have shown that direct cash transfer to women has had a positive impact oil all developmental indicators. The Finance Department also stated that the presence of a large migrant population in Delhi and difficulties in identifying such persons will pose a significant problem in identifying such beneficiaries and may result in heavy burden on the public exchequer over time.
“I had previously promised to give Rs 1,000 to every woman. But some women came to me and said that Rs 1,000 would not be sufficient due to inflation. Hence, Rs 2,100 will be deposited into the accounts of all women,” he said at an event accompanied by Chief Minister Atishi.This proposal was passed in the cabinet meeting chaired by Atishi this morning, following which the scheme has been implemented.” “Where will the money come from? I am a magician. I am a magician of accounts. I know where to get the money from. How to spend it. If I say it, I will do it,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying he wanted to implement this scheme in March, when he was still the Chief Minister, but “they conspired and sent me to jail (in the alleged Delhi liquor policy case)”. “After coming out of jail, I worked with Atishi ji so this scheme could start.”
