Cash transfer will work only for those with Aadhaar, bank account

New Delhi: Money will be transfered to beneficiaries of Direct Cash Transfer scheme only when they provide Aadhaar card and bank account number by the cut-off date in 30-35 districts which are expected to be ready for the roll out on 1 January.

This is one of the decisions expected to be taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take stock of preparations for roll out of the UPA government’s flagship programme, sources told PTI.

The meeting, to be attended by 16 ministers, is expected to be told that there should be no phased roll out within any particular district and the entire district should switch to Direct Cash Transfer at one-go on a given date.

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The sources said 30-35 districts would be covered on 1 January and rest of the 51 identified districts would be covered by January 10, next year.

With the government working on the roll out on war footing, the meeting is expected to press for according of priority to digitisation of beneficiary databases with names, addresses and Aadhar numbers. All ministries are to ensure this immediately, the sources said.

There must be 95 per Aadhar penetration level for all beneficiaries and over 95 percent beneficiaries should have bank accounts, with all banks being Aadhar-compliant. The meeting will also discuss if it is appropriate to roll out same schemes in all the selected districts or separate schemes.

For LPG subsidy, which is being rolled out separately as per separate timeline of February one, 2013, food, fertiliser and kerosene are not included at the moment. For rural development schemes, the postal system has said it will be ready by June one, 2013 in all the 43 districts. The scheme will begin in 43 districts, excluding eight in Gujarat and Haryana, in January and by April 2013, 18 states are expected to be covered.

PTI