Cash transfer an uphill task in Punjab

Monday, 10/12/2012

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121210/punjab.htm#4

Chandigarh : The government may not be able to achieve its ambitious target of implementing the direct cash transfer of various subsidies under the Aadhar scheme in three districts of Punjab by January 1. With the Aadhar enrolment still being slow and bank linkage of Aadhar cards being abysmally low, it may be an uphill task to start the direct transfer of subsidies in the next 23 days.

Three districts of Punjab-Nawanshahr, Fatehgarh Sahib and Gurdaspur have been chosen amongst the 51 districts across the country, where the UPA government’s project is to be rolled out in the first phase, from January 1 this year. However, till date the Aadhar enrolment is yet to be 100 per cent in these districts, and less than just four per cent of the total Aadhar cards have been linked to a bank account.

The UPA government is moving towards a system of transferring cash benefits directly to the poor. By using the Aadhar card number of the beneficiaries, several social security pensions like old age pension, scholarships and MNREGA benefits will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries. This will ensure that the role of middlemen is done away with and the beneficiary gets the entire benefit.

Data collected by The Tribune shows that as many as 5.17 lakh people have been enrolled under Aadhar in Nawanshahr, and 21,000 people’s Aadhar cards have been linked to their bank accounts. Whereas the number of social security pensioners in the district is 53,000.

This means that just 4.06 per cent of the Aadhar cards have so far been linked to bank accounts in Nawanshahr. Similarly in Fatehgarh Sahib, just 3.6 per cent of the Aadhar cards have been linked to bank accounts, with 3.30 lakh enrolments and 12,000 cards linked to bank accounts. The number of social security pensioners here is 42,000.

On the other hand, while Gurdaspur has seen the highest number of Aadhar enrolments (1.22 crore), the bank linkage is abysmally low at 2,200 cards. The number of social security pensioners who stand to benefit by getting direct transfer of cash subsidy in Gurdaspur is 2.11 lakh.

Sources in the Punjab State Level Bankers Committee, which is working to ensure that all Aadhar cards are linked to a bank account, said that there were still 21 lakh families in the state that did not have a bank account. Though bankers in the state are working overtime to ensure a smooth roll out of the scheme by January 1, it remains a difficult task as besides linking the Aadhar cards to those beneficiaries, who already have a bank account, new bank accounts have to be opened. These accounts need to be made operational for the financially-excluded social security pensioners in these three districts. While Punjab National Bank has been allotted the task of linking Aadhar cards to bank accounts in Nawanshahr and Gurdaspur, the State Bank of Patiala has been allotted the work in Fatehgarh Sahib.