Aadhaar may be linked with Jan Dhan scheme

The government is examining the possibility of linking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial inclusion scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana, with the unique identification or Aadhaar and resuming the Aadhaar linked direct benefit transfer (DBT) of subsidies under different schemes.

Updated on: Sep 7, 2014, 24:12:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government is examining the possibility of linking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial inclusion scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana, with the unique identification or Aadhaar and resuming the Aadhaar linked direct benefit transfer (DBT) of subsidies under different schemes.

The issue was reportedly discussed at a meeting called by PM Modi on Saturday to review the progress of Aadhaar with special emphasis on its role in financial inclusion.

The Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana, aimed at opening bank accounts for the poor, also provides for accident insurance cover of ` 1 lakh, medical insurance of `30,000 with a free debit card for those who open accounts before January 26, 2015.

This ambitious scheme of had another dimension — the possibility of the poor opening fake bank accounts to claim the benefits. To prevent that from happening, the 12-digit biometric-based unique identification number can play an important role.

But linking the bank accounts under the scheme with Aadhaar number could lead to exclusion as not everyone has this number.

Government sources said that the PM asked the Unique Identification Authority of India and the Census Commissioner — central bodies engaged in enrolment of residents for Aadhaar — to speed up the registration and start special camps for the poor.

Sources said Modi also asked the UIDAI officials about the progress of linking Aadhaar with cash transfer of the cooking gas subsidy and the public distribution system — an ambitious project started by the previous UPA government which was put in hold on January.

The presentation on pace of enrolment by UIDAI and the Census Commissioner was made at the meeting attended by IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Home minister Rajnath Singh.

Sources said issues like duplication in enrolment by the two agencies and the verification process for getting Aadhaar were also raised. The PMO asked them to appraise the PM about enrolment and expenditure incurred so far.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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