CM launches DBTS in five districts

• Aadhaar-gas linkage will end menace of middlemenA
• It will also root out benami connections: Kiran Reddy

Hyderabad: Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday noted that Aadhaar -gas linkage scheme would help eradicate the menace of middlemen, and provide financial succor to genuine beneficiaries. The exercise would also help address the issue of benami gas connections � both domestic and commercial � which account for about 25 per cent, he said.

He was launching Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme (DBTS) with Aadhaar-Gas linkage facility for the five districts of Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Anantapur, East Godavari and Chittoor here, along with Union Minister of State for Petroleum, Panabaka Lakshmi. Ministers D Sridhar Babu, Mukesh, Danam Nagender and G Prasad Kumar, MPs V Hanmantha Rao, Anjan Kumar Yadav and the officials of HP, IOC and BPCL were present at the launch. The Chief Minister stated that the government had been implementing several welfare schemes online for the benefit of the poor and the needy. While at national level, an amount of Rs 52,000 crore was being spent towards subsidy, Andhra Pradesh topped in implementing the scheme by getting Rs 5,200 crore subsidy, he said. He advised the consumers to try to save at least 5 per cent of LPG through conservation measures. AP leads the nation with an enrolment of 7.70 crore as against the total 8.45 crore population. Noting this, the CM directed the officials to expedite the process. As per the DBTS, through online booking of each cylinder, a consumer will get a subsidy amount of Rs 442.50 which includes the Centre's share of Rs 412.20 and the State government's Rs 25. Expressing discontent over the sluggish pace of opening bank accounts and Aadhaar enrollment, he asked the bankers to ensure timely release of funds. Of the Rs 1,800 crore released towards input subsidy for farmers, the banks had released only Rs 1,400 crore last year, he reminded. On the Aadhaar-bank accounts linkage, he also said that it would plug the loopholes. Of the scholarships released for 28 lakh students, Rs 300 crore was misused by benami colleges or institutions, he said. Panabaka Lakshmi appealed to the consumers to make use of three months of grace period given to secure Aadhaar cards and get them linked to their bank accounts for availing of the DBTS. She flayed opposition parties for raising doubts on Aadhaar implementation. DBTS would help avoid middlemen and misuse of subsidy and cylinders. DBTS, a brainchild of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and being implemented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would provide online cash to the actual beneficiaries. She stated that introduction of 'Know Your Consumer scheme' directly benefited the genuine clients thus affecting the benamis and due to which the subsidy amount reduced to Rs 97,000 crore from Rs 1.65 lakh crore. She asked the officials to speed up the card disbursal process from current 61 to 100 per cent and made it clear that there was a cap of 9 cylinders for consumers. Recent Parliament session could not take up the bill as the opposition parties failed to cooperate on Aadhaar scheme, she said.