Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asks states to use Aadhaar numbers to distribute ration, LPG

NEW DELHI: In order to curb expenditure and streamline delivery mechanism, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asked states to use the Aadhaar platform for distributing subsidised ration and cooking gas cylinders, and implement other government schemes.

"...given the huge potential of the Aadhaar initiative to streamline delivery and empowering the common citizen, while at the same time curbing expenditure, it is in our mutual interest to get these pilots going at the earliest," he said in his letter to chief ministers of 16 states.

In his letter, Mukherjee also underlined the need for expeditious rollout of Aadhaar-enabled payments for various central government schemes.

In the first stage, such payment mechanism would be rolled out for various central government schemes in 50 districts spread over 16 states.

Mukherjee said that pilots are proposed to be run for Public Distribution System, LPG distribution, kerosene disbursal.

Besides, government pension schemes, Janani Suraksha Yojana, government scholarships, financial inclusion, Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) and MGNREGS wage disbursal would also come under the pilot project.