MP CM Mohan Yadav: 'Ladli Behna Yojana' to Continue, Sankalp Patra Sacred for BJP

BHOPAL: Amid apprehension by Opposition Congress over continuance of ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday said that no ongoing schemes of the state government would be stopped.

Raising the issue in the house, Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat said that the governor’s address to the Assembly had made no mention of ‘Ladli Behna’ scheme, giving birth to the apprehensions over continuance of the programme by the Mohan Yadav government.

His view was echoed by his party members in the house.

Speaking in the house, chief minister Mohan Yadav however declared that no ongoing schemes of the state government would be stopped.

“No ongoing schemes of the state government will be stopped. All the schemes including Ladli Laxmi, Ladli Behna and LPG cylinder at Rs 450 (to beneficiaries of the Ladli Behna scheme) will continue. The state government has enough money (to fund the schemes)”, he told the Assembly.

He asserted that the BJP government in the state would implement all the promises made by the party before the November Assembly elections.

“Our ‘Sankalp Patra’ is like holy scripture for us. We will follow every word of it”, he added.

The ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’, a flagship scheme of the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, was launched a few months before the November 17 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh to woo the women voters by BJP.

The scheme provides Rs 1,250 per month each to around 1.31 crore women belonging to the underprivileged.

The scheme is estimated to cost the state exchequer a whopping Rs 28,000 crore annually.

In his pre-poll promise, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had pledged to increase the monthly incentive to the beneficiaries under the scheme to Rs 3,000 in phases, if BJP retained power in the state.

Congress had pledged to provide a monthly incentive of Rs 1,500 per month, if the party returned to power in the state.

However, Congress suffered a severe drubbing in the November 17 Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh by securing 66 out of 230 seats, while BJP retained power with a landslide victory in the elections by bagging 163 seats.

EOM