Mumbai: To avoid misappropriation in procurement of various items that have to be distributed to beneficiaries, the state has decided to transfer cash directly to the account of beneficiaries linked with Aadhaar.
There will be 44 items included in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Currently, 10.96 crore people (approx 99%) have enrolled their names with Aadhaar, while the state has set a target of achieving 100 per cent by the end of March 2017.
The state cabinet on Tuesday approved the new policy in which 44 items are excluded from procurement by the state level machinery to avoid scams and misappropriations. The Cabinet note has maintained that during assembly sessions, opposition party members raised issues of scams and hence procurement should be decentralised.
It was chief minister’s initiative to avoid such things and bring transparency. The cabinet also approved linking Aadhaar with all beneficiaries so that the cash benefit could be transfered directly into their bank account as part of DBT.
An official from chief minister’s office said that linking of Aadhaar with the bank would stop leakages in government subsidies, grants and ex-gratia amount. Elaborating the types of grants that would be excluded from procurement and included in the DBT scheme, the official said, grant for seeds, cycle, cloth machine, raincoat, shoes, pipeline, pesticides, books and other such items will be transferred into the bank account of the beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries would then be able to procure the enlisted 44 items from the local market. When asked what mechanism would be put in place to check whether the beneficiary has spent the grant on the specific item, the official said the grant would be transferred in part and not whole at a single time. He or she has to provide purchase receipt to the department concerned just like government has to provide utilisation certificate, the official said.
Brijesh Singh, official spokesperson of the state government, said that the state has set a target to bring each and every citizen under the Aadhaar enrolment by the end of March 2017.
“Till this date, 10.96 crore citizens has been registered under Aadhaar and only 0.25 per cent citizens are left to enrol,” he said.
