Chandigarh-The Punjab government’s flagship Chief Minister’s Mothers and Daughters Respect Scheme, officially known as the Mukhya Mantri Mawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana, has suffered a significant legal setback after the Punjab and Haryana High Court intervened on July 23, 2026. The court stayed the alleged diversion of funds from the Punjab Building and Construction Workers’ Welfare Board to finance the popular cash-transfer programme for women. The order came in response to a public interest litigation filed by the Dr. Ambedkar Workers Union Punjab, which challenged the legality of the welfare board’s constitution under the new Code on Social Security and objected to the use of workers’ welfare money for a different social scheme.
Launched earlier this month by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the scheme promises monthly financial assistance of ₹1,000 to eligible general-category women and ₹1,500 to those belonging to the Scheduled Castes. With a substantial budgetary allocation and the transfer of initial instalments already underway to lakhs of beneficiaries, the government had projected it as a major step toward women’s economic empowerment and dignity. However, the High Court’s interim stay on the fund diversion raises fresh questions about the scheme’s financing and could force the state administration to identify alternative sources of funding or defend the current arrangement in further hearings.
Senior advocate H.C. Arora, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the welfare board itself had been formed in violation of the applicable law and that money collected specifically for the welfare of construction workers could not be redirected. While the court’s order does not scrap the scheme outright, it places an immediate restriction on one of the funding channels the government had reportedly been using. The development is being widely described in local media as a major jolt to the AAP government’s high-profile welfare initiative, coming just weeks after its high-visibility rollout across Punjab. Further court proceedings and the state government’s response are expected to clarify the future of both the workers’ welfare funds and the women’s assistance programme.