Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The direct cash transfer scheme described by the Congress as a
“game changer” is indeed a game changer whose rules are weighted against
the poor, in favour of the UPA-2 Government’s obsessive commitment to
cut subsidies to the working people. The Government has declared that
this policy will, once the “system is in place” be extended to food and
fertiliser. In a period of high inflation, cash transfers to replace
public goods such as these is to actually cut subsidies since the cash
to be transferred will not cover the increased costs of the same amount
of subsidized foodgrains. This will have an adverse impact on increasing
malnutrition and hunger. The CPI(M) strongly opposes such a policy
shift away from provision of foodgrains, kerosene, fertilizers etc
instead of providing for a universal PDS at controlled prices.
The CPI(M) also objects to linking MNREGA wages to the AADHAR card.
As has been repeatedly pointed out by experts, biometric identification
for manual workers has a high twenty per cent margin of error as
fingerprints of such workers change. It is a similar problem for senior
citizens. Without any discussion in Parliament on the proposed Bill for
UID to push through such changes, which will have far reaching
implications for manual workers is unacceptable.
As far as scholarships, pensions etc are concerned, most of these
schemes are already cash transfer schemes through bank accounts and are
fiscal neutral. The amounts and also the coverage should be increased
and linked to the price index.
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