Goa: 29 ruling MLAs take all 4000 'Ladli Lakshmi' scheme forms

Under the 'Ladli Lakshmi Scheme', the government pays a marriage assistance of Rs one lakh to women in the age group of 18-40 years.

Responding to an RTI query, the Goa State Social Welfare Department, which is implementing the scheme, has revealed that none of the 11 Opposition legislators, including two Independents, has taken forms for the scheme since its inception.

This came in the backdrop of Opposition MLAs alleging on the Floor of House that they were not kept in the loop over distribution of forms.

On the other hand, 29 legislators, including twenty-one BJP members, three independents, as many MLAs of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and two Goa Vikas Party (GVP) legislators were given the forms.

The scheme was launched on July 06, 2012 and on the same day all the 4,000 forms from the first lot were distributed to the legislators supporting the government.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar had taken 500 forms each, the highest number a legislator can get.

Altogether 29 legislators from ruling coalition took the forms while 11 Opposition MLAs could not get them.

The scheme is currently embroiled in a litigation with one of the local girls filing a writ petition at the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the clause which has made signature of MLA mandatory on the form.

In its response, the state government has said the signature would not be mandatory now for the second lot of forms.