Punjab Minister launches ‘master card’ in his name as ‘Kairon card’

By Gagandeep Ahuja

##ad_1##PATIALA: SAD-BJP government in punjab is once again in the eye of storm over personalising welfare schemes. First it was pictures of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal appearing on BPL cards, Ambulances and recently figuring on bicycles given to girls school students. Now it is the turn of his son-in-law Adesh Partap Singh Kairon who Wednesday introduced a ‘Master Card’ in his own name, the ‘Kairon card’ issued to commission agents for making crop payment.

Punjab Minister of Food and civil supplies and consumers affairs, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon launched the ‘master card technology’ at grain market here Wednesday. Kairon is considered a gentleman politician who seems to have qualified as seasoned politician. He is grand son of former CM of undivided Punjab Partap Singh Kairon.

The master cards, named after Minister name and prepared by the Central Bank of India will be used by the commission agents to swap the machine provided by Food and supply department inspector and based on the details the crop amount will be deposited in the commission agents bank account, which can be further transferred to the farmers against the procured food grain crop.

Notably, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon belongs to the Kairon political family. He is the grandson of Pratap Singh Kairon (Partap singh Kairon- a congressman- was a political leader of wide influence and chief minister of the Punjab from 1956 to 1964) , son of Surinder Singh Kairon, and nephew of Harcharan Singh Brar (Former Cm Punjab).

##ad_2##He said “While streamlining the paddy procurement system of last four years, including the online payment through cheques it was observed that there was no precise system to monitor and vigil the transaction record. Hence a modified technology has been adopted to facilitate the payment system in Punjab”, Kairon told reporters.

In the pilot project, out of 1756 purchase centres, few have been identified, where about 100 machines will start functioning depending upon the flow of crop quantity in market. And within coming time, we will further extend the system covering all the purchase centres of Punjab. The will help in delimiting the manual intervention and also it is time saving. And the master server at chandigarh head-office will maintain record about the transaction details of entire Punjab, he added. The user-friendly card will bring hassle-free transfer of payments and that too free of cost, he added.

Main features of ‘Kairon card’

The swap technology has been reversed in this system, instead of cash withdrawal, the cash will be deposited.

The multifunctional card is developed on International Bank competency and innovatively engineered. The potable machine has sim card and is battery operated.

The transaction receipt will include payment details, commodity purchased, Minimum Support Price (MSP), details of commission agent and grain market and other miscellaneous charges.

The credit summary of the transaction made on previous day will also be evaluated, before starting fresh entries.