The ambitious electronic Direct Cash Transfer scheme for beneficiaries of subsidised items will be rolled out from January next year and is expected to cover 16 states by April 2014, the government announced on Friday.

The scheme, which is aimed at curtailing corruption and pilferage of subsidised items, will be based on the payment platform of Aadhaar which is also to be rolled out speedily in line with it.

These decisions were taken at a meeting held by the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee with secretaries and representatives of various ministries and departments concerned.

As per the roadmap, the scheme will be rolled out in 51 districts from January one next year. It will cover 16 states from April one 2014, according to a PMO statement.

“It was decided that all departments engaged in transferring benefits to individual beneficiaries will quickly move to an electronic Direct Cash Transfer system, based on an Aadhaar Payment Bridge/Platform,” the statement said.

“They will identify the schemes to move to this system and also prepare a roadmap with timelines so that the rollout is smooth and fast,” it said.

The list of schemes, roadmaps and timelines will be sent to the Planning Commission and PMO by 20 November 2012.

UIDAI will set up a dedicated cell of technical experts in UIDAI to facilitate Aadhaar enabled Direct Cash Transfers and help individual ministries.

Department of Financial Services will go for universal financial inclusion through individual bank accounts for all in line with the roadmap.

UIDAI will rollout Aadhaar speedily in line with the roadmap, it said.

Departments will work towards digitising their databases quickly, particularly at the state level, with the help of state governments, Department of IT and NIC to ensure convergence.

The Prime Minister had recently constituted a National Committee on Direct Cash Transfers under his chairmanship and an Executive Committee on Direct Cash Transfers to give a thrust to roll out a cash transfer programme across the country, leveraging the Aadhaar platform.

Dr. Singh will be holding the first meeting of the Committee on November 26 where the roadmap and timelines will be presented.

The purpose of Friday’s meeting was to move forward and operationalise Direct Cash Transfers for which many steps need to be taken, the PMO statement said.

The necessary steps include identification of areas where Direct Cash Transfers can be introduced, establishing mechanisms for preparing rollout plans for these areas and ensuring rapid rollout of Aadhaar to achieve better coverage of at least 80 per cent.

The steps also include ensuring universal access to banking and financial inclusion and setting up of mechanisms to enable cash transfers to actually take place.

“To facilitate all this, there is a need to constitute other committees including a Technology Committee, a Financial Inclusion Committee and Implementation Committees within each Ministry so as to ensure coordination and quick implementation,” the statement said.

The agenda for the meeting was to explain to all committee members the rationale and purpose of Direct Cash Transfers and the institutional architecture that has been put in place for the rollout.

Its agenda also included finalisation of the constitution and composition of the implementation committees, identification of areas for introducing Direct Cash Transfers and make arrangements for finalising roadmaps for rollout in each area, keeping in view the roadmap already prepared for Direct Cash Transfers of LPG Subsidy.