SC ruling could complicate DBT
Ruhi Tewari : New Delhi, Tue Sep 24 2013, 01:36 hrs
With the Supreme Court Monday restricting all authorities from denying a benefit or service to any citizen of India for not having an Aadhaar card, the implementation of the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme as originally planned could get more complicated, even though authorities claim it makes little difference.
The UPA government launched the DBT scheme, which aims at eliminating middlemen and ensuring money reaches the beneficiaries directly, in 43 districts across the country on January 1 this year. It was extended to 121 districts by July 1 covering 28 schemes.
While the government has not said Aadhaar would be mandatory for beneficiaries to be brought under the ambit of DBT, it has envisioned the scheme's implementation on the basis of Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The Planning Commission's office memorandum giving guidelines for DBT implementation dated December 26, 2012, clearly states, "The DBT programme envisages a switch from the present electronic transfer to bank accounts of the beneficiary to transfer of benefits directly to Aadhaar seeded bank accounts of the beneficiaries..." The Planning Commission's 'Information and Guidance on DBT' also mentions seeding of bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers as a pre-requisite for rollout of DBT.
"For the existing 28 schemes under DBT, nowhere have we said that if you don't have an Aadhaar number, you won't get the services you should; even without Aadhaar cards, people cannot be excluded from benefits for which they have been selected. Hence, not having Aadhaar cards for everyone is not a stumbling block. But all the same, our effort would be to have 100 per cent Aadhaar coverage," said Nidhi Khare, Adviser, Planning Commission.