Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken on Tuesday hit out at the AAP government for stalling the funds and the drop in the registration for Sheila Dikshit’s ambitious ‘Ladli Yojana’, aimed at improving gender equality in the poll-bound national capital.

This came as the second chapter of the grand old party’s ‘AAP ke paap’, a political campaign against the ruling party in the city to expose shortcomings during its decade-long rule.

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Addressing a press conference at the Rajiv Bhawan, citing a CAG report, which is yet to be tabled in the legislative assembly, Maken claimed, “CAG has found that about Rs 618 crore of 3,20,272 beneficiaries of Ladli Yojana is lying with the government, but the money has not been given to them. It also stated that there are 8, 84,000 beneficiaries in December 2022 and out of these active beneficiaries, 3 lakh 20 thousand beneficiaries are not being given money.”

The surprising thing is that the age of these beneficiaries is 18 to 20 years, 21 to 25 years and above 26 years. The money of these beneficiaries is lying, but the Kejriwal government is not giving the money, he alleged.

The total number of registrations in ‘Ladli Yojana’ in 2013-14 was 1, 39,346, which decreased to only 43,415 in 2020-21. Ideally, the number should have grown with the increase of population but such is not the case. The scheme was right of the girls but Delhi government has snatched it, the Congress leader added.

“AAP government says we will give Rs 2,100 to women in Delhi, but is not implementing the scheme for girls. In such a situation, how can AAP be trusted?” Maken said.

Notably, the ‘Laadli Yojana’ was launched on January 1, 2008 by the then CM, Sheila Dikshit to improve the gender equality in the city. Under this scheme, the poor families get Rs 10,000 after the birth of a girl child, Rs 5, 000 after she enters in the school in grade 1, 6, 9, 10 and 12 and when the girl turns 18, Rs 1 lakh is deposited in her account.

Moreover, the Congress treasurer also hit out at the AAP for failing to build three old-age homes in Sarita Vihar, Chhatarpur and Geeta Colony despite the Union government giving the land for the purpose in 2013.

“This is a matter of great shame. The AAP government only makes new promises but does not pay attention to the old work. It was afraid of getting exposed, so it suppressed the CAG report which made revelations about the poor implementation of the Ladli Yojana,” Maken said.