Govt misses another deadline in rolling out direct cash plan
20 Feb 2013 11:09 PM GMT
The much hyped Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the government which was touted as the game changer will again be missing its deadline to roll out the scheme in another 19 districts by 1st of March this year. Sources say that serious concerns regarding the implementation of the scheme has been raised by senior ministers as well as the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
‘It is unlikely that we will be able to roll out the scheme in all the districts that were envisaged earlier as enrolment of people in Aadhar and opening of bank accounts have turned out to be the major hurdles in implementation of the scheme’ a senior official said.
The officers concerned with the implementation of the scheme say that shortage of Aadhar equipment and lack of manpower for enrolling people under Aadhar is one of the main reason why the scheme is moving at a slow pace. The other reason cited for the delay is that banks are not willing to open accounts despite people having an Aadhar card with them, this despite the fact that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued guidelines that Aadhaar card should be taken as an identity proof.
The scheme in its initial phase was supposed to be launched in 43 districts however, the government in the first phase had launched the scheme in only 20 districts, with 11 districts to be added in the month of February and rest 12 districts by March. Four districts of Tripura were left out of the scheme because of assembly elections in the state.
‘It is unlikely that we will be able to roll out the scheme in all the districts that were envisaged earlier as enrolment of people in Aadhar and opening of bank accounts have turned out to be the major hurdles in implementation of the scheme’ a senior official said.
The officers concerned with the implementation of the scheme say that shortage of Aadhar equipment and lack of manpower for enrolling people under Aadhar is one of the main reason why the scheme is moving at a slow pace. The other reason cited for the delay is that banks are not willing to open accounts despite people having an Aadhar card with them, this despite the fact that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued guidelines that Aadhaar card should be taken as an identity proof.
The scheme in its initial phase was supposed to be launched in 43 districts however, the government in the first phase had launched the scheme in only 20 districts, with 11 districts to be added in the month of February and rest 12 districts by March. Four districts of Tripura were left out of the scheme because of assembly elections in the state.
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