Delhi BJP slams AAP welcomes order for probe into data collection under 'Mahila Samman Yojana'

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) The BJP on Saturday welcomed Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena's order for a probe into data collection under the "guise" of the "Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana" and said AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal would be responsible if any women registered for the scheme fell victim to cybercrime.
    Saxena has ordered an inquiry against private persons allegedly gathering personal details of women in the name of the scheme, his office said on Saturday.
    Earlier in the day, Kejriwal called the probe order a "sham" and said the monthly payment of Rs 2,100 under the scheme was a poll promise.
    He also claimed that the BJP was panicking, fearing defeat in the assembly polls, and was trying to stop registrations for the scheme.
    Kejriwal recently announced that Rs 2,100 would be provided to all adult women every month if his party returned to power for a third consecutive term after the assembly elections, due in February.
    Virendra Sachdeva, the BJP's Delhi chief, said in a press conference that Kejriwal must clarify if the Delhi Cabinet had passed a proposal to provide Rs 2,100 every month under the scheme.
    "If any cybercrime occurs against the women of Delhi, the sole responsibility will rest with Kejriwal, who has committed the crime of collecting personal data of women in the name of the 'Mahila Samman Yojana'," he charged.
    AAP volunteers are registering women under the scheme. Kejriwal said the women were fully supportive of the scheme and more than 22 lakh had registered themselves so far.
    "Kejriwal has been feeding lies to the people of Delhi for the past 10 years and has failed to fulfil any of his promises," Sachdeva charged and pointed to the AAP supremo's "unfulfilled promise" of providing Rs 1,000 a month to the women in Punjab that he had announced before the 2022 assembly polls in the state.
    Sachdeva accused Kejriwal of using women's issues only for electoral gains and called on him to learn from BJP-led states about quietly and effectively implementing programmes to support them.
    He highlighted initiatives such as the Mahatari Shakti Rin Yojana in Chhattisgarh, Ladli Laxmi Yojana in Madhya Pradesh, Lado Lakshmi Yojana in Haryana, and Ladli Behna Yojana in Maharashtra.
    BJP's South Delhi MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri also welcomed the probe order and said AAP's politics of "lies, deception and fraud" should stop.
    If the AAP government had no ill intentions, it would have officially registered the women, instead of deploying party volunteers, he said.
    Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said the inquiry order had exposed AAP's "fraud".
    Terming the announcement of a monthly honorarium of Rs 2,100 a "pre-election gimmick", Gupta welcomed Saxena's decision to investigate the matter and described it as a necessary step to protect the public from "false promises and deceit".

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)