Sheila seeks panel help for cash transfer plan

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday sought Planning Commission’s help in bringing around 30 lakh beneficiaries of various central and Delhi government — sponsored schemes under the ambit of direct transfer of cash subsidies by July.

At a meeting with Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairperson of Planning Commission, Dikshit said government has set an ambitious target of facilitating Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer to beneficiaries of a host of schemes to plug leakages and corruption.

The chief minister also underlined the need to remove obstacles in opening of no-frill ank accounts by beneficiaries so that the government can implement its plan.

In December last year, Delhi government had launched a major food security programme called Annashree Yojana under which cash subsidy of Rs 600 a month is being given to over 40,000 households not covered by BPL scheme and Antyodaya Anna Yojana. The government plans to increase the number of beneficiaries to two lakh.

In the meeting, the Commission approved a plan size of Rs 16,626 crore for Delhi for 2013-14, up by 4.8 per cent from the previous fiscal.

Officials said 93 per cent of the annual plan size would be be financed through the city government’s own resources.

The Planning Commission also heaped praise on the city government for launching project to revamp the existing property registration system and put in place an online mechanism to ensure hassle-free services to the citizens.

The online registration system has been already launched in five sub-registrar offices out of a total of 13.