Jharkhand may be huffing and puffing to get more and more coverage with proper authentication under Aadhar based Direct Benefit Transfer regime, yet the State has come up with something to cheer about. latest data from the UIDAI chapter functional in the State has showed that over Rs 122 crore in the last one year has been saved from going into wrong hands.
Nandana Munshi, Deputy Director General of UIDAI, Jharkhand while pointing out the positives of the DBT scheme said that it has worked in safeguarding public money from being going down into drains.
“In last one year 108216 beneficiaries at digitisation stage and 47546 beneficiaries at banks authentication stage have been eliminated from the list as ghost beneficiaries. In the process the Government under various schemes has managed to save Rs 122 crore which is the prime goal behind the DBT initiative,” said she on Tuesday while speaking in a workshop on DBT and Financial Inclusion organised by IT Department and the World Bank jointly.
The DBT started exactly a year ago in 2013 is rolled out for as many as 29 schemes in the State but primarily beneficiaries of scholarship programmes, pension schemes and NREGA are getting their payments directly into their accounts and has eliminated middlemen from the process. Aadhar penetration in the State has scored a success with over 3.14 crore enrolments done so far.
At the same time, Data shows that DBT transactions in the respect of the State have not been smooth. In January 2014 total 76015 number of transactions took place for Rs 35195347 which went up to Rs 61764754 in June. Though, it slipped to 49363 transactions transferring Rs 31038015 to the beneficiaries in September 2014.
Though, seeding of the beneficiaries’ UID numbers with their bank or post offices accounts present not an encouraging picture. Seeding of just 65 per cent beneficiaries of scholarship schemes whereas 50 per cent and 64 per cent of NREGA and pension schemes respectively, have been completed so far. Percentage for PDS is extremely dismal with just 1.7 per cent seeding done.
DBT is primarily aimed to cut the funds going in vein as several cases of non-existent beneficiaries, those claiming benefits for more than one schemes or claiming on the name of the others are prevalent in various parts of the State.
The figures prompted Information Technology Secretary NN Sinha to term the State a fit case for setting up a DBT Cell. “Aadhar and financial inclusion are the two pillars of DBT. We have near universal coverage of Aadhar card in the State but at the same time lower seeding and authentication ratio. For this we need to bring the entire stakeholders on single platform so that the goal is achieved in a time bound manner.”
He also pointed out to lethargy on the parts of India Post in delivering UID cards and also seeding of the accounts primarily of NREGA workers with them. “Minimum standardisation is also required on the banks level. We also have issue of collectivity in the rural areas on the part of telecom operators which is a big hurdle in rolling out the services,” added Sinha.
Robert Chase of the World Bank termed the State full of potential in terms of expansion of the DBT and lauded the high percentage of Aadhar enrollment as good ecosystem to bank upon in the days to come.