‘Bring all benefits under cash scheme’
Even as the Centre has rolled out “Direct Cash Transfer” scheme in select 20 districts for only about seven welfare programmes in the first phase from January 1 this year, the Planning Commission is of the view that the entire gamut of welfare and subsidy schemes should be brought under it as a matter of policy and implementation should be left to the discretion of the states.
Deputy chairman of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in his opinion, the government should now consider bringing all welfare and subsidy programmes under the ambit of Direct Cash Transfer scheme.
“We know that there are a few chief ministers like Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, who are opposing PDS to be brought under the cash transfer scheme. But at the same time many are there like Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who want poor should be given cash in lieu of subsidised food grains,” Mr Ahluwalia said.
Arguing further the deputy chairman of the plan panel said, the Centre could think of FDI in multi-brand retail model to be adopted in rolling out of the direct cash transfer schemes in the states. “Here I mean to say that once decided at a policy level to shift all welfare and subsidy programmes under the cash transfer scheme, it can be left upto respective states to either dole cash or provide food grains through PDS system,” he said.
At the recently held National Development Council (NDC) meeting, a few of the chief ministers, including Mamta Banerjee of West Bengal, J. Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu and Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh vehemently opposed the Centre’s plan to go in for cash transfer. But two Congress chief ministers — Sheila Dikshit of Delhi and Prithviraj Chavan of Maharashtra — supported the Centre’s move. The Direct Cash Transfer scheme to provide monetary support to the needy through Aadhar-linked bank accounts was launched on January 1 in 20 districts in six states and three union territories. The scheme is proposed to cover the entire country by the end of this year for a few select Central government welfare programmes.
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