5.92 lakh women register for Delhi Lakshmi Yojana in 10 days

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta told the Assembly on Monday that 5,92,406 registrations have been completed under the Delhi Lakshmi Yojana in just 10 days since the portal opened on August 1. The Chief Minister made the statement while responding to Opposition questions about the scheme’s conditions after AAP MLAs walked out of the House rather than staying to hear the Government’s reply.

The Chief Minister said the near-six-lakh registrations within 10 days reflect the enthusiasm and confidence of Delhi’s women toward the scheme. She said the registration portal will not be closed until 17 lakh eligible women have been provided the Rs 2,500 monthly assistance. On the Opposition walkout, the Chief Minister said she regretted that members who claimed to champion Delhi’s women did not have the courage to remain in the House when the interests of those very women were being discussed.

She said she had openly challenged Opposition MLAs to stay and hear her response, but they left because, she alleged, they knew there was no truth in what they had said.

On the three-child condition that the Opposition had questioned, the Chief Minister said no woman is merely a machine for giving birth. Women’s health is extremely important to the government, she said. The Delhi government does not support the mindset that forces women to keep expanding their families in pursuit of a male child.

The Chief Minister explained the structure of the scheme and said that Rs 1,000 is provided through a digital wallet for household and daily expenses, while Rs 1,500 is deposited as savings in an FD or RD. Over three years, the accumulated savings would amount to approximately Rs 60,000 including interest.

She said women in the national capital are fully capable of using digital currency and digital wallets. On pink cards and free bus travel, the Chief Minister said pink cards are being made for women of Delhi. She said the Delhi government’s position is that money paid by Delhi’s taxpayers should benefit the people of Delhi, and government funds cannot be redirected elsewhere.

The Chief Minister also took on the AAP government in Punjab, questioning a women’s welfare scheme announced there in July, just before elections, and alleging that a court had stayed the use of funds because the money belonged to a construction workers’ welfare fund and not to the state government.

She said this was a betrayal of women in Punjab, which already carries a debt of approximately Rs 4 lakh crore. She said no government in power for 15 years under Congress or 11 years under AAP had ever brought a scheme of this scale for Delhi’s women, and that the Rs 5,100 crore provision in the budget for this scheme was unprecedented.

The Chief Minister also strongly objected to alleged remarks by Opposition leaders linking the scheme to provide bicycles to girls with electoral motives.

She said the objective of the Vidya Vahini bicycle scheme is to help girls reach school, continue their education, and reduce the dropout rate. She assured Delhi’s women that no eligible woman would be deprived of the benefits of the Delhi Lakshmi Yojana or other schemes, including the Pink Card, Anmol Yojana, two free LPG cylinders, and the Vidya Vahini Yojana.