HC seeks Delhi Govt’s stand on PIL for proper disbursement of Ladli scheme funds

New Delhi [India], May 12 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from the government of Delhi NCT on a plea for direction to conduct identification and exercise the 182,894 Ladli scheme beneficiaries who have not received the entitled amount of approximately Rs 364 crores and disburse the same to the entitled girl child after the said identification.

The Bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad on Friday sought the stand of Delhi Govt’s Department of Women and Child Development and fixed the matter for August 2, 2023.

The plea moved by Aakash Goel, Social Activist through this Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking to invoke the writ of mandamus for proper implementation of the Delhi

Ladli Scheme 2008 and for proper utilization and disbursement of the funds to the tune of Rs.364 Crores lying unclaimed with the Respondent.

The plea stated that the aim of the scheme was to enhance the social status of the girl child in society as well in the family, ensuring proper education to make the girls self-reliant, ensuring her economic security by depositing Rs 100,000 in her bank account by the time she attains the age of 18 and protecting them from

discrimination and deprivation.

The plea further stated that as per the RTI reply dated June 15, 2022 and August 8, 2022 of the Respondent more than Rs 364 crore of money belonging to 182,894 Ladli Scheme beneficiaries of the age of over 21 are lying in SBI — the vendor of the scheme.

That the aforesaid amount should to be rightfully disbursed to the respective beneficiaries but no steps have been taken by the Respondent to disburse the same and the said amounts are lying unutilized for the purpose of which it was allocated.

The process for availing the benefits of the Ladli scheme in Delhi is a complicated process which requires various multiple documents which a person belonging to a

poor household may or may not have such as Ration card, voter ID etc which have been deemed necessary to prove person is living in Delhi for more than 3 years, it stated.

The said scheme requires re-registration at the time of reaching each milestone and thus the same documents are produced again and again by the Applicant despite already producing them previously and getting registered for the same. Thus even if one document as per the rules of the

Delhi Ladli scheme is not available with the Applicant, the Applicant is disqualified from applying for the benefits under the said scheme without being given an opportunity to rectify the shortcomings that may have arisen, it added.

With many different schemes, school students have Zero Balance Bank Accounts starting Class I.

That the Ladli Scheme requires students to apply for a new bank account with SBI just for receiving funds resulting in a girl child having multiple bank accounts.

To avoid such multiplicity, the Ladli scheme shall include the bank account already existing with the Girl child and integrate the same, the plea read.