Cash transfer using Aadhaar: Sibal denies code violation

In its reply to the Election Commission, the government said that the announcement of the direct cash transfer scheme has not violated the model code of conduct.

In its reply to the notice sent by poll panel, the government explained that the scheme was among the proposals presented by Pranab Mukherjee, the then Finance Minister, while delivering the budget speech in March this year.

In a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office on September 28, it was mentioned that, the architecture for transitioning to electronic cash transfers leveraging Aadhaar, has already been established. As per the government, the model code of conduct came into force on October 3 for the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. But these announcements were made before the enactment of the model code of conduct.

"This (direct cash transfer) is only an implementation of an announcement that has already been made. The government has neither directly or indirectly violated the election code because the policy announcement was made way back in the budget speech by the then finance minister," said Telecom Minster, Kapil Sibal. The Election Commission will announce its decision on Tuesday.

"The government would respond appropriately to EC. But the fundamental question is that is BJP supportive of direct beneficiary transfers? They should clarify their stand on the issue. We have maintained that this would make the system transparent and distribution efficient. Is BJP opposed to it? It seems Congress is anti-poverty and BJP anti-poor," said Manish Tiwari, Information and Broadcasting Minister.

After Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh announced the scheme, last week at the Congress headquarters, BJP had complained to the poll panel that the scheme was announced ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections which is scheduled on December 13 and 17. The opposition also said that out of 51 districts, four districts selected to benefit initially from the scheme were in poll bound Gujarat.

"Is Congress serious about it (direct cash transfer scheme)? Have they done their homework well? Let Manish Tewari say why it has come a cropper after it was introduced with fanfare in Rajasthan," questioned BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is against the abolition of Public Distribution System (PDS) which according to him has done well in BJP ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.