The Delhi government cabinet on Thursday approved the Mahila Samman Yojana scheme under which eligible women will receive Rs 1000 every month, ahead of forthcoming assembly election in the national capital.
“I am proud to announce that under the leadership of Atishi, the Delhi cabinet has approved the Mahila Samman Yojana scheme to provide Rs 1000 to each woman every month in Delhi. Now this scheme is active, women have to register for the same to get the benefit of this scheme,” AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said.
The Delhi Assembly polls are due to be held in February 2025. However, the Election Commission has not announced the dates of the polls.
The AAP is seeking to retain power in the national capital for the third term in 2025 after the electoral success in 2015 when the party won 67 seats out of 70. In the last Delhi Assembly elections which were held in 2020, AAP won a landslide victory and secured 63 of the 70 seats.
He said that the scheme should have been implemented in April this year, however, I was sent to jail due to false cases against me.
“I announced this scheme in the month of March this year and was hopeful of implementing it in the April-May but they sent me to the jail in fake cases. When I came back, I started working on the scheme. I am glad that with the efforts of the party, we have implemented this scheme in Delhi,” he added.
Meanwhile, he also announced that this amount will be raised to Rs 2100 following the assembly polls.
“I announce today that registration will start tomorrow and it will be of Rs 2100,” he said.
The Delhi government had announced the “Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana” in the budget 2024-2025 for providing Rs 1000 to each eligible woman in Delhi every month. An allocation of Rs 2,000 crore was also made by the government in the budget for the scheme.
Soon after the announcement, the BJP was quick to respond and the party’s National Information and Technology Department in-charge Amit Malviya said that the same promises were made in Punjab during Lok Sabha elections but none was fulfilled.
Taking to micro-blogging site X, he said, “Arvind Kejriwal had made a similar announcement in Punjab two years ago and in Delhi before the Lok Sabha elections. Till date, not a single woman in Punjab has received a single rupee and the excuse given is the empty state of the government treasury.”
He further stated that respect and empowerment of women and daughters is possible only with Modi’s guarantee. “Women in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are already getting the guarantee of the Modi government,” he said.
