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Enrolment of LPG consumers in four districts of the state- Puri, Cuttack, Khurda and Bolangir for direct benefit transfer (DBT) by November this year has hit the wall of uncertainty after the Supreme Court order on Monday on Aadhar cards and also the slow pace of disbursement of these cards.
The state government is now awaiting specific guidelines from the Centre after the apex court ruled that Aadhar cards are not mandatory for availing essential services.
"After the apex court order on Aadhar cards, the Centre has to take a call on the matter. But completing the process of enrolment in the four districts by November does not seem probable”, said Madhusudhan Padhee, secretary (IT, food supplies & consumer welfare).
So far, only 20 per cent of the beneficiaries in Puri, Cuttack, Khurda and Bolangir districts have received Aadhar cards.
While Puri, Cuttack, Khurda and Bolangir are set to be enlisted for DBT transfer by November 2013, consumers in three more districts- Balasore, Bhadrak and Sundargarh are lined up for enrolment in the second phase by January 2014.
According to available data (as on September 2013), there are 10,90,135 LPG beneficiaries in these seven districts which includes 47,687 consumers in Bolangir, 2,41,350 consumers in Cuttack , 81,077 in Puri, 3,48,671 in Khurda, 1,74,179 in Balasore, 61,756 in Bhadrak and 1,36,019 in Sundargarh.
For implementation of DBT, all these beneficiaries need to be enrolled, their Aadhar numbers generated and those numbers linked up with their bank accounts.
Stressing on awareness campaigns for universal Aadhar enrolment, state chief secretary J K Mohapatra said that financial support will be offered by the state government for the purpose. He also urged the oil marketing companies to enrol the LPG consumers at their dealer outlets and prepare dealer wise action plans.
The onus will be on the authorities of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to draw up action plans at village and gram panchayat level for enrolment.
Similarly, the district collectors and block development officers have been asked to provide necessary administrative support for universal Aadhar enrolment.
As per the 2011 Census, the state's total population is 41.9 million of which 24.4 million people have already been enrolled of which Aadhar letters have been generated for 10.7 million beneficiaries.
