The West Bengal government has rejected around 2.6 million applications for the newly launched Annapurna Yojana on citizenship-related grounds after scrutiny using Special Intensive Revision (SIR) data, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Wednesday, adding that more than 13 million applications were found to be genuine.Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari says West Bengal rejected 2.6 million Annapurna Yojana applications and removed ineligible beneficiaries from welfare rolls. (Samir Jana/ Hindustan Times)The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which had included the Annapurna Yojana in its election manifesto, rolled out the scheme on June 3 after coming to power by defeating the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In its first budget, presented last month, the government allocated ₹36,000 crore for the project in the current financial year.“We received around 16 million applications. While more than 13 million applications were found to be genuine, around 2.6 million applications were rejected as they didn’t fulfil the criteria,” Adhikari said while addressing an administrative programme where cash benefits were transferred to the bank accounts of more than a million beneficiaries.“We did a survey of the beneficiaries who received cash benefits under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme. It was found that at least 2.7 million were either not Indians or their names were deleted from the voters’ list. The list included deceased beneficiaries, those who have shifted to other locations, and some who were receiving the assistance in multiple accounts. We deleted their names because other than Indians none can avail the government benefits,” he added.The Annapurna Yojana replaces the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, a pet project of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, which was launched in February 2021 to provide monthly financial assistance to women from economically weaker sections of society.The chief minister, however, added that those who came from Bangladesh as refugees and have applied for Indian citizenship under the CAA, and those who have approached the Supreme Court-mandated appellate tribunals, will continue to receive the benefits until their cases are resolved.“Of the 20 million beneficiaries under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, around one million have been found to be men. Should men be getting the assistance under Lakshmir Bhandar? Hence, sieving had become necessary,” Adhikari said.Names of around 6.3 million voters were dropped from the electoral roll after the final roll was published in February this year during the SIR. Another 2.7 million cases are pending before the appellate tribunals.The BJP government had come under criticism when it asked women in the state to fill up a 12-page form to avail themselves of the benefits under the Annapurna Yojana.“We were criticised for the 12-page application. Actually, one had to fill only around four pages. Now that you have filled up the form and your data has been uploaded on the government portal, you need not fill up any other forms to avail multiple benefits under various schemes of the Centre and state government,” he said.Earlier in May, Adhikari had said that around three million fake beneficiaries were receiving monthly financial assistance under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme during the former TMC regime.“We had initially thought the list of beneficiaries under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme was verified. But we received plenty of allegations that individuals whose names had been permanently deleted from the electoral roll and had neither applied for CAA nor appealed before the Supreme Court-mandated appellate tribunals were receiving assistance under the scheme. The number is approximately three million,” Adhikari said.