This refers to the debate “Is UID-linked cash transfer a good idea?” (January 10). With every passing day, more inadequacies in the direct cash transfer scheme are surfacing. Reportedly, the government had handed the electoral rolls in respective areas to public sector banks operating in the districts selected for the launch of the scheme, with instructions to ensure that every household has at least one bank account. One wonders about the reason for using electoral rolls, and not Aadhaar numbers. If the Centre’s objective is transparency and fewer leakages in reaching the benefits to the poor, planning should start from the grass-roots level. Local bodies, revenue officials, bank offices and branches, cooperatives, non-banking financial companies and social organisations operating in respective areas should be taken on board while identifying the beneficiaries of the scheme. This programme is different from providing mobile connections, or reaching out with medicine for polio. Banking is a two-way relationship with several changing dimensions. ATMs and hand-machines with banking correspondents cannot substitute for the personal relationship a banker cultivates with his/her clientele over time. But it is quite unlikely that the present political leadership will opt for such a change, since time is running out for them.
M G Warrier, Thiruvananthapuram
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