India, Sept. 8 -- Thanks to the government's cash crunch resulting from the Rs.3,500 crore monthly payout to Ladki Bahin beneficiaries, over 1,881 Shiv Bhojan thali operators have not received their payments for the last six months. Some of them have decided to down their shutters, while an operator in Nagpur, unable to pay the accumulated money owed to grocery suppliers and employees, even tried to end his life.

The Shiv Bhojan thali scheme, in which over 1,70,000 thalis of food are sold to the poor at Rs.10 each through 1,881 centres across the state, was launched during Covid-19 by the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government. The state government gives operators-generally NGOs, self-help groups or small hoteliers-a subsidy of Rs.25 in rur...