The Centre’s ambitious Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) programme was launched in 20 districts across the country, of which three — Mysore, Tumkur and Dharwad — are in Karnataka.
Despite lower coverage of Aadhaar-linked bank accounts in the Dharwad district, 3-4 smaller schemes of the 34 schemes were launched in each of the three identified districts in the state, including pre-Matric scholarships to minority and SC / ST students. Dharwad has only 30 per cent Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, while Tumkur and Mysore have around 95 per cent.
Aadhaar is a 12-digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India to serve as proofs of identity and address.
Aadhaar-linked bank accounts saw cash transfers worth over Rs 1 crore to beneficiaries today in Karnataka. However, the number of beneficiaries on the first day were not known, said government officials. The three districts of Karnataka are part of the 51 originally selected across 11 states for implementation of the scheme's first phase, with more additions likely from February.
"We have to stabilise the system of opening Aadhaar-linked bank accounts in all the three districts. And we have restarted Aadhaar enrolments across the state. Over the next few days, we will roll out direct cash transfer for some larger schemes including National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Nrega) and Social Security Pension (SSP)," said ISN Prasad, principal secretary - e-governance and IT with the government of Karnataka.
Going by the the guidelines, subsidy, wages, scholarships, social security pensions, among others under various government-sponsored schemes, are to be directly credited to the beneficiaries’ accounts to avoid delay, plug leakages and attain more transparency.