One of the purposes behind the Aadhaar scheme is to ensure that government welfare schemes reach the eligible. The state government launched the Aadhaar/UID project in seven districts, in the first phase — Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Chittoor, Anantapur, East Godavari, Adilabad and Srikakulam. It began in late August 2010 with the civil supplies department as the registrar and the aim of enrolling 3.1 crore people.
Banks and other organisations, including the India Post, will begin Aadhaar enrolments shortly. The State Bank of India has already begun enrolments in districts other than those covered in the first phase and the Central Bank of India is preparing to do the same. In Maheswaram mandal of Ranga Reddy district, the government has distributed Aadhaar-based smart cards and used these for the purpose of dispensing rations. Officials say the smart card has saved the mandal about 15 per cent in wasted rations as the cards can weed out bogus beneficiaries and also detect the diversion of subsidised stocks to the black market. These two crimes have considerably reduced the efficiency of the public distribution system over the years, and if the state government can manage to enrol all its residents by March 31 next year, the date fixed by the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, to complete Aadhaar enrolments, the state stands to benefit a great deal.
Smart Cards: Unlike Aadhaar, the 12-digit unique number which is issued to individuals, the Smart Card is a family card on which the biometrics of all the family members is recorded. Any member of a family below the poverty line can thus go to a fair price shop and draw rations by swiping the card in the Point of Sale (PoS) terminal kept in every fair price shop.
Whenever the beneficiary makes a transaction, the card details are validated using the PoS terminal. As the position of the stock of foodgrain is reflected in the terminal, it leaves no scope for the dealer to lie that there is no stock available and divert the unsold stock to the black market.
Maheswaram has about 14,514 smart cards and issues a monthly ration of 2,300 quintals of rice. According to the Ranga Reddy district supply officer Mr Narasimha Reddy, the mandal saved about 15 per cent of rations in the last two to three months by weeding out those who do not qualify under the scheme. The government distributes essential commodities such as rice, wheat flour, sugar, red gram and palm oil to low income families through fair price shops at subsidised rates. The government spends most on its rice subsidy — about Rs 2,500 crore. The quicker the government links ration with smart cards the more it will save. According to one estimate, it can save about `375 crore per year on an average. To put it another way, it will lose about `32 crore for every month it delays.
Ration cards: The government is thinking of doing away with ration cards and replacing them with smart cards. The state has 1,94,38,918 BPL (below poverty line) card holders, which includes 36,671 Annapurna and 13,91,208 Antyodaya Anna Yojana card holders. The state government recently distributed another five lakh temporary ration cards recently, during the Rachchabanda programme. Annapurna card holders get 10 kg each of rice free of cost whereas families with Antodaya cards get 35 kg per month, irrespective of the size of the family.
The above figure of beneficiaries has been arrived at after weeding out bogus ration cards in a recent drive. “It’s a difficult and time consuming process as removing the white card of a genuine beneficiary will undermine the very purpose of the scheme,” said Mr B. Harikrishna, deputy director of the civil supplies department. The government is also not waiting to link Aadhaar to all the schemes until the entire population is enrolled. “We are planning to take it up fair price shop-wise. We are identifying beneficiaries yet to be enrolled under every fair price shop and mobilising them to get themselves enrolled,” he maintained.
By doing so, the officials want to complete all the circles in the city and mandals in districts. “Under some fair price shops, all the beneficiaries have been enrolled. We will link them with smart cards once their Aadhaar numbers are generated,” Mr Harikrishna said. The state government which started linking Aadhaar initially with the Public Distribution System gradually wants to extend the same to other schemes as well. The government wants to extend the same to pensions, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Indiramma Housing.
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Quelle/Source: Deccan Chronicle, 04.07.2011
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