Aadhaar: Drive in taluk headquarters today

Joint accounts, dormant accounts will not work for DBT

A drive to encourage people to open bank accounts for Aadhaar based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), especially of LPG subsidies will be held at all taluk centres in the district, today. This is part of the “aggressive campaigning” launched by the banks to facilitate seeding of bank accounts with LPG consumer numbers for DBT.

The drive is being carried out based on the feedback received by bank authorities about poor seeding of bank accounts and LPG consumer numbers in rural areas of the district. A similar drive was held in Mysore city on July 17.

K N Shivaligaiah, Lead Bank manager, speaking to Deccan Herald said that only 53 per cent of LPG consumers in the district, had seeded thier Aadhaar numbers and LPG consumer number at the banks. This is an increase from 39-40 per cent seeding recorded during the launch of LPG subsidies under DBT, on July 1.

“About 88 per cent of LPG consumers have seeded their Aadhaar numbers and LPG consumer number companies, as per the information available with us,” he said.

According to the banks, there were a total of 4,87,500 LPG consumers in the district, of which 4,29,856 consumers had seeded with LPG distributors. But, the number of consumers who have seeded with the banks are 2,58,400.

He said that 2,58,400 consumers’ accounts had been mapped by the National Payment Corporation of India, ensuring DBT of LPG subsidies directly to their bank account.

It can be recalled that banks had also dispatched letters and text messages for the consumers to seed their bank accounts and LPG consumer numbers. As many as three lakh letters had been dispatched.

Shivalingaiah said that bulk text messages to two lakh customers have been sent twice by banks and Mysore district Bankers Forum. The response to the letters, text messages have been good, as many people have linked their bank accounts after they received the messages, he said.

Complaints

Though bank authorities maintained that Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG subsidies was done with 99 percent efficiency in Mysore district, few complaints had surfaced in the month following the launch of the scheme.

“Most of the problems are attributed to wrong account numbers, due to which subsidies were not transferred,” said K N Shivalingaiah, Lead Bank manager. Subsidies wont be transferred if bank accounts are not in the name of LPG consumer. Joint accounts would also be not eligible for DBT, he said.

One of the major problems observed in rural areas and in some cases, even in the city, was that LPG consumers had provided dormant account for DBT, he said. This had resulted in subsidies not reaching the beneficiaries.