Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is taking initiative
to make the Congress-led UPA Government’s Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme
a good success. As per his instruction the Youth Congress (YC) has stepped in
to plug the loopholes of this ambitious scheme which would definitely be a
game-changer for the Congress in the 2014 polls.
A team of 18 Youth Congress leaders—mostly presidents of the
district level YC units—has been handpicked to act as observers in 43 districts
where rollout of the DBT has been announced. The DBT was launched in 20
districts from January 1. Another 11-12 districts will witness the launch of
the Aadhaar-based scheme from February and March respectively.
These observers have been given three key tasks: To ensure
at least 80% Aadhaar enrolment, setting up of zero-balance bank accounts for
beneficiaries, and reporting back shortage of bio-metric capturing machines—a
crucial element for ensuring speedy enrollment of beneficiaries. “The team was
given the final shape last week. Now, they will travel to their respective
districts and give direct feedback to Team Rahul Gandhi on the ground-level
progress,” said a Youth Congress functionary.
“Ideally, at least 1,000 beneficiaries should be enrolled
everyday. But in places like Amaravati in Maharashtra, hardly 40 people are
being enrolled daily,” said a Congress source.
In his recent interaction with the YC leaders, Rahul Gandhi
had promised the Congress’s full support for the scheme. The Congress leader
also had stated that the scheme has the potential to act as a game-changer not
just in the 2014 elections, but also the 2019 polls.
