AAP announces monthly honorarium for eligible women in Delhi, finance dept flags budget constraints

New Delhi: AAP government's plan to provide a monthly honorarium of Rs 1000 to eligible women in Delhi before the upcoming Assembly polls, seems to have hit the bureaucratic logjam with the Finance department flagging budgetary constraints, officials said on Friday.

The Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojna of the AAP government was announced in the budget 2024-25 for providing Rs 1000 to each of the eligible women in Delhi per month. An allocation of Rs 2,000 crore was also made by the government in the budget for the scheme.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been reiterating in his Padyatra campaigns for the Assembly polls, that the scheme will be launched soon and the monthly honorarium will be credited to the bank accounts of the women.

A week ago while campaigning in Burari constituency, Kejriwal also said that registration for the scheme will start very soon.

However, officials said that the Finance department of the Delhi government has informed Chief Minister Atishi that the scheme will lead to the requirement of Rs 4,550 crore for disbursals to eligible women in Delhi.

The department has pointed out that the subsidy amount required for the scheme could push the budget of government into deficit in the next financial year 2025-26.

The Women and Child Development (WCD) department recently submitted a draft proposal of the scheme to the Finance department for its comments.

Earlier, the government expected to roll out the scheme in September or October this year but it got delayed as the proposal took time to be formed. As per initial estimates, the scheme was likely to cover around 45 lakh eligible women in Delhi.