MUMBAI, Sept. 8 -- The state government's Shiv Bhojan thali scheme, in which over 170,000 thalis are sold daily to the poor at Rs.10 each, is in jeopardy as 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 thali scheme was launched during Covid-19 by the MVA government. Although the state government incurs an expenditure of Rs.227 crore per year on the scheme, the Mahayuti government allocated only Rs 70 crore in the FY25-26 budget. This has resulted in the pendency of operators' bills for over six months. P4...