Monday, 20 May 2013 | SEEMA SINDHU | New Delhi
While the Government is going gung-ho about the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, the Finance Ministry, the most important Ministry in rolling out the scheme — seems to be skeptical of the “game changer” plan of the UPA Government.
In a meeting held last month, Finance Minister P Chidambaram is learnt to have cautioned the various Ministries against the bottlenecks and gaps in implementation of the DBT scheme.
He noted that digitisation and updation of beneficiaries needs to be done meticulously as the rollout of Aadhaar hasn't happened in many areas and many people could be left out, which may backfire during the elections.
According to the note of the meeting, available with The Pioneer, Chidambaram also suggested that subsidies for fertilisers and food be kept out of the scheme for the time being as they have complex issues that need resolution before they can be brought under the DBT.
Fertiliser Minister Srikant Kumar Jena too said that Aadhaar in National Population Register (NPR) States should be rolled out faster otherwise large areas would be left out.
At present, half of the States are being enrolled through NPR and the other half through Unique ID.
In fact, Home Secretary RK Singh suggested that the distinction between NPR and Aadhaar States should be removed for future rollout.
Chidambaram also noted that financial inclusion remains a major concern and procurement of micro-ATMs will take time.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too emphasized that the coverage of Aadhaar is not adequate and to ensure that no one is left out, Aadhaar should be available on demand. But Aadhaar is still not available on demand or camp mode.
The DBT has been operational in 43 districts since January 1 and currently covers 25 schemes. Now the Government has decided to extend the scheme to 78 more districts beginning July. This would imply that the scheme would cover nearly one-fifth of the country.
Many of the districts have not recorded full coverage of Aadhaar, and the biggest problem is filtering fake and genuine beneficiaries. The Ministries are just digitizing the list already available with them. How the DBT stops the leakages is a question which deserves no award.