New Delhi: Set to launch its new flagship programme of direct cash transfer from January one next year, the government on Tuesday said it will be a "game changer" with lasting benefits and dismissed suggestions that the roll-out hinted at mid-term polls. The programme, aimed at plugging leakages and ensure efficient delivery of benefits, will initially cover 29 welfare schemes mainly related to scholarships but leave out beneficiaries of subsidised food and fertilisers which involve "complex and difficult" issues.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said the new "flagship" programme under which beneficiaries would get cash through banks was a "path breaking reform". Chidambaram said about 29 schemes are ready to start from January 1 next year in 51 districts spread across 16 states.
The electronic cash transfers will be based on Aadhar (Unique Identification Number) platform. The entire country is targeted to be covered by the end of next year. Rejecting opposition charge that the scheme amounted to offering bribe to people as there could be mid-term polls, he said, "It is an absurd argument. I cannot find a stronger word... People should choose their words carefully. People should hurl their accusations with a sense of responsibility."
Insisting that the programme has "nothing to do" with polls, he said, "Elections will come and elections will go. Governments will come and governments will go. Parties will come and parties will go." Chidambaram, who was addressing a joint press conference with Ramesh at the AICC headquarters, said the scheme will be a "game changer from the point of view of ordinary citizens of India" and its benefits will be long-lasting."
Ramesh, while terming it as "transfer of 'haq' (right)", said it was an election promise of Congress in 2009 which was being fulfilled. "Congress is a political party, not an NGO. We had promised cash transfer of benefits and subsidies in our election manifesto of 2009," Ramesh said, asking "Where is the
talk of elections?"
The first announcement about Direct Cash Transfer was made the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech on March 16, 2012. The announcement was made in paras para 23, 24 and 25 of the Budget speech and the first press release on the same was issued by the PMO on September 28.
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