Ambika Pandit, TNN | Sep 23, 2013, 11.58 PM IST
NEW DELHI: With the Supreme Court making it clear that Aadhaar cannot be mandatory for release of benefits under social welfare schemes, the enrolment by the state government for the recently launched Food Security Programme and 10-odd cash transfer schemes, including the cash-for-food Annshri Yojana, seems to be in jeopardy.
The city witnessed a great rush early this year when the government decided to link critical documentation like marriage registration, property registration, income certification, handicap certification and caste certificates for the SC/ST &OBC category to Aadhaar enrolment. And just last week, the Sheila Dikshit government announced 100% Aadhaar enrolment.
While critics of Aadhaar all along said the law does not provide for making Aadhaar mandatory for any government scheme, the CM relentlessly pushed for enrolment and the launch of Aadhaar-based cash transfers and the Food Security Scheme, arguing that biometric identification is a foolproof way to weed out duplication.
On the Supreme Court order, Delhi's Food and Civil Supplies minister Haroon Yusuf sounded cautious: "I am yet to see the order and will only know what to do when I see it. But if the court has said that Aadhaar cannot be mandatory, then we will have to see what to do".
The Food Security Programme that calls for registration through a form so that the beneficiaries can be issued the National Food Programme card has a column for the Aadhaar enrolment number.
Sources said reworking the modalities to register for social security schemes at this stage may delay and even derail the delivery of benefits. The government's direct benefit transfer platform is hinged to Aadhaar and it is the critical identity link that makes cash transfer possible. For instance the Dilli Annshree Yojna wherein Rs 600 cash is released to beneficiaries has an enrolment ceiling of Rs 2 lakh. So far, 1.20 lakh people have been enrolled, more than a lakh receive Aadhaar-based cash transfer and the rest are to be brought on board.
The record of payment delivery in other cash transfer schemes is hardly encouraging, though. The three pension schemes for widows, the handicapped and the elderly have 6.5 lakh beneficiaries. But the social welfare department is struggling to process data to make Aadhaar-based cash transfers possible. In case of Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana there are 8,711 beneficiaries but only 54 have received Aadhaar-based cash transfers.