Input Subsidy Disbursement before the advent of DBT
The input subsidy amount released from NDRF to the State isreleased to the PD account of respective Deputy Commissioners as per the demand in the Memorandum. The Deputy Commissioners in-turn release the amount to drought affected taluk based as per the joint survey report. Tashildar in coordination with Revenue Inspector and Village account identifiesbeneficiaries and issues cheque or transfers money through RTGS/NEFT. This system was a protracted delivery process which invariably led to in ordinate in providing timely input subsidy. There were instances in the past where input subsidy disbursement process took almost a year and a half. The major drawback of the systems is as follows:

  • The process used to consume significant time and administrative resources as entire Revenue machinery in the taluk and district level are engaged in damage assessment and identification of beneficiaries, which used to impair other development works in the districts
  • Process was riddled with high amount of discretion at every stage leading to inequitably and inefficiently distribution, invariably leading to input subsidy amount given to unintended beneficiaries.
  • Rent seeking from beneficiaries, illegitimate commission seeking by cutting edge level officers who had power to stop, deny or delay the benefit to be passed.
  • Pressure on local banks leading disrupting the day to day operations particularly rural cooperative bank which lacked wherewithal in terms of technology and manpower to scale up the operations during disbursement.
Evolution of Parihara Application
The above stated drawbacks were deliberated extensively with all stakeholders and decision was taken to direct transfer of input subsidy to beneficiaries’ account which will eliminate intermediaries, weed out fictitious beneficaries and discretion of government officials to stop, deny or delay the benefit to be passed.

What started as excel sheet format for data collection for crop damage evolved into a most sophisticated web application “Parihara” to ensure a better and timely delivery of financial assistance in terms of input subsidy directly into the accounts of beneficiaries thereby plugging leakages and enhancing financial inclusion.

Parihara is an innovative web based application was developed inhouse by Revenue Department (Bhoomi Monitoring Cell and Disaster Management), Govt. of Karnataka to to enable direct benefit transfer (DBT) through Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service,i.e., transferring of input subsidy amount directly into the Aadhaar seeded bank accounts of intended beneficiaries.

Parihara application was developed within a short span of 2 months involving in house human resources. 20 software engineers worked more than 12 hours daily.

It goes without saying that key to any technology intervention is effective implementation. There were, nevertheless, two major challenges in implementing Parihara. The first is the issue entry of 7 million records in quickest possible time and second to ensure integrity of data entered. Around 15 video conferencing was held to sensitize the district admin about the application and review data entry status under the Chairmanship of Development Commissioner cum Addl. Chief Secretary/Add. Chief Secretary E-Gov/Principal Secretary, Revenue Department(DM) with Deputy Commissioners of drought affected districts. A record 5 million records were created in Parihara in span of 4 months.