Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during the launch of cash transfer under Anna Bhagya scheme, in Bengaluru. , Photo Credit: File Photo
The state government, which on July 10 launched Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in lieu of additional 5 kg rice to beneficiaries under the Anna Bhagya scheme for BPL and Antyodaya card holders, has so far deposited ₹456.73 crore to 78.4 lakh beneficiaries.
However, due to technical reasons, DBT for beneficiaries in seven districts is still under process. The Food and Civil Supplies department says that one file can process only 20,000 DBTs and multiple files have to be created for each district. Since it takes time, the payments have been delayed but they will be cleared in eight days. The districts which have received DBT so far are Chamarajanagar, Vijayapura, Hassan, Chikballapur, Udupi, Vijayanagar and Shivamogga. The total number of eligible beneficiaries in these districts is 18.86 lakh.
The government transfers ₹170 per month per beneficiary in exchange for 5 kg of rice (₹34 per kg). This amount will be deposited in the bank account linked to the Aadhaar number of the head of the family. The government decided on the DBT route after the central government refused to supply rice.
Though there are 1.28 crore ration card holders in the state, currently 97,27,160 are eligible for the scheme. According to an official of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, about 8.7 lakh ration card holders, who did not take advantage of this scheme for the last three months, have now been excluded from it. Around 21 lakh card holders are still not eligible; Most of them have not linked their Aadhaar with bank accounts and some of them do not have bank accounts.
The official said that the fair price shops will display the names of ration card holders who do not have bank accounts or have not linked bank accounts with Aadhaar and they will help in linking Aadhaar or opening bank accounts at post offices. It is in progress and soon all the remaining 21 lakh card holders will also get the benefit of DBT, the official said.