Odisha opposes Centre's move of direct cash transfers

"How can it be possible when a large number of people in Odisha do not have bank accounts?" Odisha's Food minister P K Deb questioned.

"The basic objective of the public distribution system to arrest hunger among the poor will be defeated if the beneficiaries are provided cash instead of cheap food," the minister said.

The government instead should put a mechanism in place by which food items could reach the doorsteps of the poor living in remote areas of the state, he said.

The state government has realised the difficulty in direct cash transfer provision under MGNREGA work, he claimed.

It was planned by the Centre to pay the subsidy on food, fertiliser and petroleum products, in the accounts of beneficiaries from April 2014.

The Centre also planned to start the direct cash transfer of subsidies on a pilot basis in 51 selected districts in the country.

No Odisha district has been included in the pilot project.

Meanwhile, food supplies secretary M S Padhi said the state government was yet to get the National Population Register list from the Centre.

"It is not so easy to implement the direct cash transfer system in a state where about 22 per cent of the population are tribals," Padhi said.