Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) scheme is severely underfunded and violating key provisions of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, under which it was implemented. Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, Gandhi said that the PMMVY was launched in 2017 and provided for maternity entitlements after child births for pregnant women in the informal sector. Citing an analysis, Gandhi sought to know why the delivery of financial assistance under the scheme had dipped drastically. “According to an informed analysis for 2022-23, about 68 per cent of pregnant women received at least one instalment of PMMVY for their first birth, but in the very next year, this proportion fell drastically to just around 12 per cent. I would like to ask the Union government, why was this allowed to happen?” Gandhi asked. Story continues below this ad Gandhi then went on to question why the recently presented Union Budget did not contain information on allocations for the PMMVY scheme. “The …