How the centre government is copying Bihar

PATNA: What Bihar thinks today, India thinks tomorrow! The Budget proposals envisaging transfer of cash subsidy directly to the beneficiaries in case of LPG, kerosene and fertiliser is a Bihar model being replicated by the Centre. Bihar already boasts of a number of government sponsored schemes in which the cash subsidy is directly transferred to beneficiaries. This is not the only case.

There are several other schemes and programmes of the state government which are being emulated by the Centre and other states as well. Bihar is also the first state to have introduced bicycle scheme for the schoolgirls which not only became very popular in the state but also attracted nation-wide attention.

“Now, several other states have such a scheme for school girls. But in Bihar , the money is directly made available to girl students to procure their bicycle and even school uniforms to avoid any leakage,” BJP spokesperson Sanjay Jha told ET, adding the bicycle scheme will now also cover boys. The introduction of the bicycle scheme made Bihar the first state to have adopted an effective system for transferring cash directly to the targeted beneficiaries (schoolgirls) of subsidies.

“Bihar government has a number of schemes in which the money is directly transferred to the intended beneficiaries of subsidies. The chief minister has been advocating for such a cash transfer policy which need to be adopted for myriad schemes having subsidy component .

It is good that the Central government has now taken the cue from Bihar with the Union Finance Minister pushing for cash transfer policy in lieu of subsidies meant for LPG, fertiliser and kerosene,” speaker of the Bihar assembly Udai Narain Choudhary told ET.