NET Policing, SMART CARDS must for social takeoff

Tina Edwin
The Economic Times

Involvement of local communities and panchayati raj institutions combined with greater emphasis on better governance and improved service delivery is imperative to raise the bar for delivery of services to the targeted groups and enhance the strategy for inclusive growth, according to the Economic Survey 2008-09.

The survey also underscores the need to use Internet-based public accountability (PAIS) system and Universal ID (UID) cards to prevent leakages and wastage in implementation of schemes, particularly those with overlapping objectives.

The report card on the economy and its governance acknowledges that while the government-spending on social sectors has risen, and programmes such as NREGS have introduced more transparency in disbursement of funds, the reach of public and quasi-public goods and services supplied by the state still leaves a lot of scope for improvement.

To overcome the problem, the survey suggests that an Internet-accessible PAIS should be available for every programme. And, this system should accompanied by an integrated smart card system that empowers the citizen to demand approved and budgeted entitlement as right. “The system needs to be built on the identification and issue of UID number to all residents.” It has proposed that entitlements should be based on data stored on the smart card and services/subsidies/entitlements should be recorded against the card.

The initial database of UID is to be created using electoral rolls and enriched through linkages with ration card database of the department of food and public distribution and the bpl database of the ministry of rural development.

Even as the survey makes a case for smart cards, the UID Authority of India is already facing trouble attracting joint secretary-rank officers to take up the role of UID commissioners. The Centre intends to appoint 35 such commissioners, and the personnel ministry’s first request for nomination on May 20 evoked lukewarm response. The ministry sent out the request to states for the second time on July 1.

These cards may also be used to enhance the efficiency of administering the Public Distribution System (PDS) schemes as it would help reduce incidence of bogus ration cards and diversion of food grains. It has also suggested that food coupons or stamps, indexed to food inflation, would be a better alternative to the PDS system.