Chief minister Hemant Soren’s review of the scheme of a token Re 1 registration fee for women buying property for the first time has sparked buzz that the sop may be axed.

The BJP-led Raghubar Das government had launched the scheme, meant for women buying property worth up to Rs 50 lakh, in June 2017.

JMM minister Haji Hussain Ansari, who heads the department of registrations, conceded that the token registration fee came up for discussion during the two-day review of departments chaired by the chief minister on Monday and Tuesday. CM Hemant holds the land and revenue portfolio.

“I can’t disclose much about this, but a decision will be taken about this registration scheme,” Ansari said. “The government is reviewing every aspect of this scheme, including its reach and impact.”

A government source said the scheme mostly helped women in the mid- and upper-income bracket who did not need sops anyway.

BJP fumes

“This scheme led to a loss of Rs 100 crore for the state. The state’s coffers are empty, so some tough decisions on populist schemes that are impractical or do not benefit the needy might have to be taken in public interest,” the source said.

Six months ago, the then Raghubar Das government had released a report claiming 152,521 women had availed of the scheme. But 238 cases also came to light where buyers availed the benefit twice, due to which the government suffered a loss of Rs 1.07 crore.

The cloud on the sop comes at a time the Hemant government has flagged fiscal distress to justify reviewing whether the Das government’s cash sop of Rs 5,000 per acre for marginal farmers launched in August last year, should be rolled back.

The BJP is gearing up to raise a storm in the upcoming month-long 2020-21 budget session of the Assembly, which starts on February 28, if the government goes ahead with scrapping the schemes.

“This (Hemant) government has no development vision. Instead of doing anything positive, it seems to be scrapping all the good that the Das government did,” said state BJP spokesperson Pratul Nath Shahdeo.

He said his party would protest in the budget session if the farmer-friendly and women’s registration schemes were scrapped.

On February 9, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, in Ranchi, had also expressed worry over the Hemant government mulling to do away with the farmers’ scheme.