In a move that could speed up the ambitious direct cash transfer programme, rural development minister Jaiarm Ramesh has suggested other entities such as state governments and banks should be roped in to enroll residents in the Aadhaar system.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ramesh said the direct benefits transfers (DBT) scheme would be successful if multiple registrars are allowed to enroll beneficiaries in the Aadhaar system.
Currently, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is mandated to enroll a total of 600 million residents in 16 states and union territories where it is already at work. The remaining 600 million are to be recorded by the Registrar General of India (RGI) as part of the National Population Register (NPR).
?The RGI has been given the responsibility for enrollment in major states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam. In order to make the DBT initiative successful, in those states where the RGI is enrolling through NPR, it would be beneficial to allow multiple registrars to enroll their beneficiaries into the Aadhaar system,? Ramesh said.
Interestingly, the authority and NPR were at loggerheads with both the home ministry (for which NPR collects data) and the UIDAI authorised to collect data. The home ministry had raised concerns on allowing UIDAI to extend its coverage from 200 million to 1.2 billion people as the census is also capturing biometric information.
Noting that multiple registrars would make the DBT roll out ?smoother, efficacious and non-exclusionary since enrollment into the Aadhaar system would be on demand and based on the needs of the beneficiary,? Ramesh said that it would avoid duplication as once enrolled in the Aadhaar system, the resident would not need to give his biometrics at the time of NPR enrollment again.
?In states where Aadhaar enrollment is currently exclusively through the NPR route, other registrars like state governments, banks, oil marketing companies, NSDL, etc should be permitted to enroll beneficiaries of various schemes into Aadhaar so that implementation and roll out of EBT (electronic benefit transfer) is expedited and completed in a time-bound manner.?
If implemented, this would fast track the programme, which has been downsized from 51 districts initially to 20 now. Besides, the number of schemes to be included have been divided into welfare schemes like NREGA and scholarships where the benefits have been rolled out from January 1 and the other set of schemes pertaining to fuel and food where the roll out is scheduled from April 1.
