E-cash transfer will be game-changer, says PC

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Electronic cash transfers will be based on Aadhaar (Unique Identification Number) platform. The entire country is targeted to be covered by the end of 2013.

Rejecting the Opposition charge that the scheme amounted to offering bribes to people as there could be mid-term polls, the Union finance minister, P. Chidambaram said, “It is an absurd argument.

I cannot find a stronger word... People should choose their words carefully. People should hurl their accusations with a sense of responsibility.”

Insisting that the programme had 'nothing to do with elections', he said, “Elections will come and elections will go. Governments will come and governments will go. Parties will come and parties will go.”

He said the scheme will be a 'game-changer from the point of view of ordinary citizens of India and its benefits will be long-lasting'.

Ramesh added that it was an election promise of the Congress in 2009 which was being fulfilled.

“The Congress is a political party, not an NGO. We had promised cash transfer of benefits and subsidies in our election manifesto of 2009,” Ramesh said, asking, “Where is the talk of elections?” Ramesh said the programme was “not transfer of cash but haq (the right) of the people.”

Chidambaram said there will be “practically no case of falsification”.