Patna, June 30: The Centre’s Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer scheme might not be rolled out in Arwal, Sheohar and Sheikhpura tomorrow because the mechanism to implement it is still not in place.
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has so far issued the Aadhaar number to few beneficiaries. Worse, the bank accounts of a large number of people are yet to be opened. The Aadhaar number has to be seeded with the bank accounts of the beneficiaries for direct transfer of the welfare amount from the Centre to the beneficiary.
The direct cash transfer to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries was scheduled to start in the three districts on July 1, eradicating the role of middlemen and official bottlenecks.
Verification of digital signatures of the district- and state-level authorities by the Centre, mandatory for the commencement of the direct benefit transfer scheme, has also not been completed.
According to sources, the district-level disbursement officers under various welfare schemes and district magistrates are required to send their digital signatures to the state-level nodal officer, who after verification would forward it to the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The signatures have to be registered in the databank of NIC. Upon successful registration, information is communicated to the district-level officers. In case of the three districts in Bihar, the digital signatures are either yet to be sent or the signatures are yet to be registered.
A day before the stipulated rollout of the direct benefit transfer scheme in the three districts, authorities seem to be “clueless” about its introduction. Rameshwar Singh, principal secretary, state finance department, said a videoconference between the Planning Commission, the district administrations and the state government is slated on Monday.
“I am not completely aware of the rollout of the scheme in the three districts from tomorrow. However, there is a video conferencing session tomorrow, wherein a clear picture might emerge,” said Singh.
Sheohar district magistrate Jai Mangal Singh seemed doubtful regarding the launch of the direct benefit transfer scheme from Monday.
“The transfer of the welfare money into the bank accounts of beneficiaries according to Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer scheme system from tomorrow at Sheohar is unlikely. Banks are yet to open large number of accounts and Aadhaar numbers are still to be issued to the beneficiaries in this district,” said Singh.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, district magistrate, Sheikhpura claimed that the registration of digital signatures of the district-level officers has still not been confirmed.
“After verifying the digital signatures of the disbursing officers, I have forwarded the same with my own digital signature to the state-level nodal officer. However, the registration of the same with the NIC has still not been confirmed,” said Singh.
Singh said biometric registration for Aadhaar number has been done for 75 per cent of total 6,700 beneficiaries at Sheikhpura and bank accounts have been opened of almost all the beneficiaries.
Ram Kumar Poddar, the nodal officer for direct benefit transfer scheme at Arwal, also said the process of registration of digital signatures of authorities was still going on.
“Few of the disbursement officers have given their digital signatures and the rest are also expected to give the same in a day or two. Moreover, we have done the biometric registration of 80 per cent of the total 13,668 beneficiaries in the district and bank accounts have also been opened for around 8,000 beneficiaries,” said Poddar.
Around 10 centrally sponsored welfare schemes would be linked to Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer scheme in the three districts.
The schemes include Janani Suraksha Yojana, National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education, National Means- cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme Post and Pre-Matric Scholarship for SC/ST and OBC students.
