Maharashtra Scam Exposed: How Men Embezzled Women's Welfare Funds

The amount of loot, Saamana alleged, is in the range of Rs 25 crore, and the scam took place in connivance with CM Fadnavis, Dy CM Shinde and others.

The Thackeray camp ridiculed the Mahayuti partners' threats to expose the opposition's scams and claimed that Mahayuti's threat to the opposition was a "big joke".

The Thackeray camp in the editorial said that CM Fadnavis and others always claimed that the Ladki Bahin Yojana was launched to empower women financially, but in reality, this is an industry "to buy women's votes" for just Rs 1,500 (monthly financial aid). "About 12,431 men took advantage of this scheme. While these got the monthly financial aid of Rs 1,500 throughout the year, it has also been clear that one lakh ineligible women took advantage of the Ladki Bahin Yojana. The government, which deposited Rs 164.20 crore in the accounts of ineligible beneficiaries, could not stop this scam."

Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena took a dig at the Fadnavis-led government, saying that treason also has its limits and it should not be tolerated without punishment. "There is a Fadnavis-led government in the state, and the scams are being committed by the opposition! So what is the Chief Minister doing? Resign and go and sit in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office," it taunted.

"Chief Minister Fadnavis has warned that he will expose the scams of the opposition relating to the electoral rolls. It is not good for Chief Minister Fadnavis to make such a bold statement on Diwali that he will expose how people from opposition parties benefited due to the scams in the electoral rolls. This means that the campaign launched by the opposition in the state against the Election Commission and the exposure of the vote rigging scam that was made has strongly hit Fadnavis in the heart," said the editorial.

The Thackeray camp claimed that it was a joke that Fadnavis was talking about exposing the opposition's scams. The corruption of the BJP and its people in elections has repeatedly come to the fore. "The Election Commission is under his influence. The district-level election decision-making officers are his. All the machinery for inserting and removing names from the electoral rolls is in the hands of Fadnavis-controlled officers. What can be said about the charge that the opposition benefited from the election scam when the Election Commission is working under the government's instructions?" it asked.

"Two days ago, senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said that there are about 9,500 bogus voters in his Sangamner constituency. The officials rushed to include these names in the electoral rolls without verifying them. This is because the government wanted to defeat Thorat. The addresses of many of these voters are outside the constituency. Looking at this, the ruling alliance claimed that the opposition benefited from the electoral roll scam. This claim is utter nonsense," said Thackeray camp. It added that the ruling party should not consider the opposition as fools, saying that it is ridiculous to claim that a scam in the electoral rolls benefited the opposition.

"Fadnavis has spoken 20 times in the last 20 hours about the scams of the opposition parties. In fact, Fadnavis's statement that such a scam took place and the opposition also benefited from it means it is an open admission that a major scam is going on in the electoral system and voters' lists. The Fadnavis government is doing many things so that the scams being committed by his government do not get much publicity, and that cases are suppressed on the spot. Again, he will speak about the scams of the opposition and the so-called scams," said the Thackeray camp sarcastically.

According to the editorial, the land scam of Pune's Jain Trust is worth Rs 3,500 crore. "If people from the opposition parties are involved in it, Fadnavis should say so. The threads of this Jain Trust land scam have reached the Chief Minister's Office. The Jain community in Pune is demanding answers from Fadnavis against this land scam, but he is pointing the finger at the opposition parties, which is a joke," it said.

- IANS