This refers to the edit “Cash to the consumer” (July 7). If precautions are taken to ensure that the direct cash transfer scheme is not hijacked by the bureaucracy, it will surely make things much easier for below poverty line (BPL) families. The Department of Post should be entrusted with the task of setting up a savings bank for rural and semi-urban customers and cash transfers should preferably be done through this new set-up.
Apart from this scheme, we also need a much better public distribution system (PDS). An improved PDS, without subsidies but with assured and better supplies of foodgrain and direct cash transfers can go a long way in alleviating the condition of BPL families.
Narendra M Apte, Pune
Readers should write to:
The Editor, Business Standard,
Nehru House,
4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi 110 002,
Fax: (011) 23720201;
letters@bsmail.in
