Govt justifies cash transfer announcement

In a communication to Election Commission, which had expressed unhappiness over last week's announcement and sought an explanation, the government said the Finance Minister's Budget Speech in March this year had outlined the success of several pilots across a number of states relating to the Aadhar-based service delivery mechanism.

This only clearly established that the Scheme had already been partially operationalised even prior to March 2012, the government contended.

The BJP had objected to the government announcement in the midst of elections in Gujarat and had petitioned the poll authority to set aside the scheme.

"The present proposal to extend the pilots to 51 districts across India is the logical next step towards the implementation of this methodology of transferring benefits to at least 50 districts.

"This is meant to ensure that the final roll out of Direct Cash Transfers is seamless and smooth. Thus, the proposed pilot in 51 districts is not a new scheme but an extension of the pilot already in place," the communication from the Planning Commission said.

It said that recommendations of the Task Force headed by Nandan Nilekani on IT strategy for Direct Transfer of Subsidy were made way back in February 2012.

These recommendations were accepted by the Government in March 2012, and were also announced by the Finance Minister in his Budget Speech.

"In view of all (the) above, it is stated that the announcement being objected to does not constitute a violation of the Model Code of Conduct," the Planning Commission letter said. (More)