Chandigarh: The Punjab Cabinet on Sunday approved the ‘Mukh Mantri Mawan Dheeyan Satkar Yojna’, under which women will receive a monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000, while those belonging to the Scheduled Castes will get Rs 1,500 a month.
The scheme will benefit more than 97 per cent of women in Punjab, an official statement said, sharing details of the decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The scheme was a key poll promise of the ruling AAP in the run-up to the 2022 Punjab elections, which has been launched now, a year before the state goes to the polls again.
Under the scheme, women aged 18 years or more, who are registered as voters in the state with a valid Aadhaar card reflecting Punjab residency and a valid Voter ID issued by the Election Commission, shall be eligible as beneficiaries.
Addressing an event in Fatehgarh Sahib on Saturday, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had said, “With this scheme, we have fulfilled all our guarantees (promises made at the time of 2022 Punjab polls).”
The statement quoting the chief minister’s office (CMO) said the scheme will have a “monumental effect” on the upliftment of women by empowering them to become independent.
“It will give them choice and, clubbed with financial literacy, it will promote savings, thrift and investment, enabling dignity in fulfilling their small desires,” the statement said. The scheme has been designed as a direct benefit transfer (DBT) initiative, under which the financial assistance will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
There is no restriction on the number of eligible women in a family who may avail the benefits under the scheme, and the existing social security pensioners will also continue to receive its full financial benefits in addition to their pensions, it said.
According to the statement, Rs 9,300 crore has already been sanctioned in the Budget for the financial year 2026-27, and, given the scale and outreach of the scheme, it is expected to become one of the largest women-centric social welfare initiatives undertaken by the Punjab government.
The Cabinet also gave its consent to amendments in the policy for the conversion of leasehold industrial plots/sheds to freehold. Now, industrial plots mortgaged with banks or financial institutions shall be eligible for conversion to freehold, subject to the submission of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the concerned bank and compliance with the prescribed safeguards. A conversion fee of 5 per cent shall be applicable where the current title documents do not contain any clause relating to unearned increase, irrespective of its presence in earlier title documents.
The Cabinet also gave its nod to introduce the Punjab Common Infrastructure (Regulation and Maintenance) Amendment Bill, 2026, to reform the Punjab Common Infrastructure (Regulation and Maintenance) Act, 2012, to strengthen the effectiveness, transparency and financial sustainability of special purpose vehicle (SPVs) for better management of industrial areas.