NEW DELHI, Aug. 1 -- Applicants for the Delhi government's Rs.2,500 per month cash payout scheme for women will have to submit a letter of recommendation from the Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of their constituency to qualify for the benefits, documents reviewed by HT show. This requirement, coming on top of other restrictive eligibility criteria, may whittle down the potential pool of beneficiaries of the Delhi Lakshmi Yojana scheme from the 1.7 million initially estimated by the state government. For the record, Delhi has 70 MLAs, including 48 from the BJP and the rest from the Aam Aadmi Party, and seven MPs, who will have to sign these letters of recommendation. "The government earlier had the same requirement for the widow pension scheme, but it was later removed," an official said on condition of anonymity. Another official said the application forms will have a section that will have to be signed by the local MP/MLA and that this clause was incorporated to ensure transparency and involve the public representatives. "Once the public representatives will be involved, they will also ensure that the credentials of beneficiaries are duly checked," this official said. "All MLAs from any political party can verify the documents. This is how most state welfare schemes have always worked and there are no feasibility concerns in this implementation mechanism," said Delhi home minister Ashish Sood. Other mandatory documents for applications include Aadhaar card, voter ID card, photograph and signature, along with one residence proof and one age proof document. The scheme entails a payout of Rs.2,500 per month to the eldest woman between the age of 21 and 60 from a household whose total annual income is under Rs.2.5 lakh. A beneficiary, or her husband or parents, must have been residents of Delhi for at least 10 years. Women with more than that three children will not be eligible for the scheme, guidelines revealed after the scheme was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday showed. This stipulation would exclude 15% of women from the lowest income strata of Delhi's households, an analysis by HT found. Besides women already receiving financial assistance or pension under any other government scheme, those who pay income tax, file GST returns, are government employees, or belong to families with members employed by the Centre, state governments, public sector undertakings will be ineligible, according to the cabinet note approved on Tuesday. Additionally, families owning a four-wheeler, annual household electricity consumption exceeding 2,400 units and women with a criminal record will also be excluded. The government earmarked Rs.5,110 crore in the 2026-27 Budget. Women who opt for the government's preferred payment model will receive Rs.2,500 every month, with Rs.1,500 deposited into a recurring deposit (RD) or fixed deposit (FD) and the remaining Rs.1,000 credited to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wallet....