Reported by Vibha Verma in Oheraldo.in on August 20, 2012
Oheraldo Goa's complete online news edition :: Ruling-legislators-swiped-all-Laadli-Laxmi-Scheme-forms

PANJIM: All legislators supporting the Manohar Parrikar-led government were the beneficiaries of the first lot of forms for the Laadli Laxmi Scheme, while opposition legislators did not have a single form, an inquiry under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar had taken the highest number of 500 forms each, while others had either 200 or 100 forms taken to distribute in their constituencies.

The reply under RTI act mentions that all the forms were given to the MLAs on July 6, 2012, the same day when the scheme was commissioned at the Secretariat. /> On that day, 28 legislators were distributed the forms – all from the ruling coalition, including independents.

The information procured under RTI has shockingly revealed that none of the opposition legislators – nine from Congress and independents Vijay Sardesai, Rohan Khaunte and Naresh Sawal, had the forms.

The scheme aims at providing financial help of Rs 1 lakh for a girl for her marriage. In the first slot, 4000 forms were printed for distribution.

Four BJP legislators -- Mahadev Naik, Francis D’Souza, Milind Naik and Dayanand Mandrekar, took second highest of 200 forms each.

The remaining legislators were distributed 100 forms respectively. They include Sudin Dhavalikar, Glen
Ticlo, Michael Lobo, Kiran Kandolkar, Pramod Sawant, Ramesh Tawadkar, Alina Saldanha, Carlos Almeida, Laxmikant Parsekar, Lavoo Mamledar, Deepak Dhavalikar, Ganesh Gaonkar, Caitano Silva, Rajendra Naik, Avertano Furtado, Mickky Pacheco, Benjamin Silva, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Faldesai and Vishnu Surya Wagh.

The flagship scheme of Manohar Parrikar led government had met with criticism from the opposition benches during the recently concluded state legislative assembly session.

Parrikar had admitted on the floor of the house that since legislators from the coalition government were aware of the launch, they took the forms.

Parrikar had even assured that the next slot of forms will be printed in the month of August and given to the remaining MLAs.