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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today cleared another 78 districts to be incorporated under the UPA’s pet Direct Cash Transfer scheme.
Among the new inclusions, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareilly, party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s constituency Amethi and significantly Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Etawah also find a place.
With Yadav’s Samajwadi Party acting as the crucial life-support system for the UPA at present to continue its run at the Centre, the decision to include Etawah could be politically motivated.
The 2014 Lok Sabha polls not being very far away, the inclusion of Rae Bareilly and Amethi districts of Uttar Pradesh, is seen as a much-needed impetus to the struggling Gandhis.
In the first wave of the scheme, 43 districts were chosen in the country on a pilot basis on 1 January 2013 for the launch of the Direct Cash Transfer
scheme.
The Direct Cash Transfer scheme is aimed at cutting down corruption in the distribution of food, fuel and fertilizer subsidies for people below the poverty level. Holding a Aadhaar card is compulsory to avail this facility.
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