Jibran Nazir

Jammu

To avoid the duplication of beneficiaries in various government-sponsored social welfare schemes, Finance Minister, Dr Haseeb Drabu, Wednesday in the on-going budget session has proposed to converge all such schemes and to make them Adhaar-linked.

“At present, a number of schemes are administrated by various departments targeting the same population for the same need especially in the social sector. While the target groups and criterion may vary, yet the fundamental objective is the same,” Dr Drabu said while addressing the budget session.

“An example of this is the scholarship schemes of the State Government. Hon’ble Members will be surprised to know that there are more than two dozen scholarship schemes for students being administered at present by various departments,” he said, “Obviously, there are many doubts regarding the targeting of beneficiaries and also whether the same beneficiaries are receiving scholarship benefits from various schemes.”

There is no mechanism in the state to monitor if marginalized groups are benefiting from the schemes and avoid such duplications, he said.

While suggesting a way to tackle this problem, finance minister said, “A more efficient and transparent way would be to converge all these schemes under one umbrella and make it Aadhaar-linked so that no duplication occurs.”

“This would ensure that the effort is focused fully on targeting and reaching the deserving and marginalized groups. An effort would be made in this regard in the financial year 2017-18. Further, a mechanism will be worked out to administer it through one department or nodal agency,” he said.

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