By Yatish Yadav - NEW DELHI
Published: 28th Jul 2013 08:42:18 AM
- While the UIDAI began the process in 2010, the NPR was handed over 19 states for biometrics coverage only last year.
UPA’s game changer Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme is turning out to be a casualty of bitter turf war between two institutions tasked to enrol beneficiaries, hurting the government’s plan to target maximum population ahead of the 2014 general elections.
The slow enrolment process has prompted the Prime Minister Office (PMO) to intervene. The two institutions—Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) headed by Nandan Nilekani and National Population Register (NPR) which comes under Registrar General of India—are collecting biometrics of people across the country. While the UIDAI began the process in 2010, the NPR was handed over 19 states for biometrics coverage only last year.
Government sources said the PMO in April had summoned both UIDAI and NPR top brass to discuss DBT Phase II in 78 districts, including Rae Bareli and Amethi—parliamentary constituencies of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. They said that UIDAI put the blame squarely on NPR for delay in issuing Aadhar numbers claiming that it did not receive the data from NPR to facilitate Aadhar for targeted beneficiaries. Surprised by UIDAI’s offensive, the NPR justified the progress saying it received the mandate only in 2012 and trying hard to cover all the allocated areas.
“PMO brought truce between the warring institutions and asked both the sides to cooperate and focus on DBT on priority basis. PMO conveyed the message in no uncertain terms that the focus of biometrics enrolment is only beneficiaries. The general enrolment process for rest of the population will continue at its own pace," sources said.
An official said it's obvious that the UIDAI wanted to shift blame away from its failure in generating Aadhar numbers from data already captured and forwarded by NPR.
“NPR already uploaded 10.64 crore enrolled data collected from 19 states to generate Aadhar number but UIDAI was able to execute only 6.20 crore packets till July first week. Data of almost 3.44 crore is waiting to be executed by UIDAI. In fact, they tried to cover up by shifting the blame,” the sources added.
A government official on condition of anonymity said the turf wars were not limited to UIDAI and NPR. Involvement of multiple agencies and departments makes the entire process of rolling out benefits very complex. He said currently the DBT scheme is being handled by at least nine ministries with the help of district administration and various other departments at local level. With inclusion of old age, disability and widows pension, total 29 welfare schemes will be covered under DBT.
“Eighty to 90 per cent enrolment is almost complete for the 26 schemes in DBT phase II. Enrolment for three pension schemes may take some time as the administration is yet to finalise the list of these pension beneficiaries. At the same time Central PSUs entrusted with biometric enrolment will have to upload the data for execution of Aadhar number. Hopefully by August-September, this entire process will be over,” he said, adding that five terminals each were put up at tehsil level for biometrics enrolment to expedite the process. For most ambitious LPG subsidy through DBT, only 50 per cent LPG customers were enrolled for Aadhar. “There is a lot of ground to be covered as only 14 per cent bank accounts were connected with the unique identification number.”
- The Sunday Standard