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Fin Min now trying to address the issue by organising special camps
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Vrishti Beniwal / New Delhi November 16, 2012, 19:07 IST
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The government’s plan to do all cash transfers through unique identity card Aadhaar from January 1 has hit a roadblock with many states saying the system is not foolproof yet.
After Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today pointed that the poor people were being harassed while trying to open a bank account though Aadhaar, the finance ministry admitted to some problems in the system.
“It’s not easy for a person to open a bank account. We felt there is a little bit of harassment,” Dikshit said, adding the concern was raised by most chief ministers of northern states in their meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram along with heads of selected public sector banks today.
On Thursday Chidambaram had said cash transfer of subsidies would be rolled out in 51 districts of 16 states on a pilot basis from January 1, 2013. He added every subsidy transfer would be through Aadhaar-enabled accounts--education loans, scholarships, MNREGA payments, old age pension, PDS subsidies, LPG subsidies, Indira Awaas Yojna subsidies and ultimately fertilizer subsidies.
The finance ministry is now trying to address the issue by organizing special camps. Officials said there is a difficulty in urban branches but not in the rural branches.
Because Aadhaar is not available to everybody and there are operational issues, it has been agreed that the process of cash transfers won’t stop even where Aadhaar system is not available. For identification of beneficiaries voters ID can be used as valid proof.
"States' concerns were very valid that account opening is difficult and we admit that there is difficultly. So the idea would be to admit the problem and then find a solution. We are going ahead with that," Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal told reporters.
Mittal said what has been agreed is that where ever there is a large concentration of people who want to open account, in urban areas in particular, camps will be organised by the state government and the Finance Ministry and banks. In those camps, bank accounts will be opened.
Chief Ministers of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand participated in the meeting. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh chief ministers sent their representatives.
Aadhaar is a KYC for no-frills account. For normal accounts Aadhaar will be one of the identifications. There will be other identification that will be required as specified by the RBI. Aadhaar will cover 18 states and Union Territories by April next year and 16 other states and UTs by April 1, 2014.
Initially, it will be rolled out in Kerala, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Delhi, Puducherry, Karnatka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.