After several years of waiting, Railiben Babubhai Naik, who belongs to a below-poverty-line (BPL) family, got a house under the Indira Awas Yojna in Ankli village of Devgadh Baria in Dahod district. She was entitled to the benefits for a decade but never got them.

Sigabhai Valjibhai Vasawa of Jharvani village in Nandod Taluka of Narmada district needed Rs 10,000 to set up a provision store. He got it under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) in August when officials of the Directorate of Rural Development Agency came looking for him.

Thanks to a new delivery system developed by the Gujarat Rural Development Department, schemes meant for BPL and poor families are now reaching the people they are meant for. “From treating the schemes as ‘quotas’ or ‘numbers’, we are giving them ‘faces’. And the faces belong to the poorest,’’ Vipul Mitra, secretary rural development, says.

‘‘Now, instead of the beneficiaries running from pillar to post to get the benefits, the taluka development officers go in search of them. That is because the system has already generated a list, identified the names of the most needy, with their addresses. The TDO has to go find them and give what is due to them,’’ says Mitra.

In the process, ministers, MLAs, local politicians, panchayat presidents and sarpanchs have been eliminated from the system.

Recommendations are not entertained. ``If your name is not in the list then you are not entitled to the benefit. If it is there, then you don’t need a recommendation,’’ says taluka development officer of Devgadh Baria, Dahod, J H Patel who will be handing over 200 houses this December. The system can generate any data based on combinations: All SC families in a taluka, all dalit families not having pucca houses or all families not having means of livelihood. Depending on whom you want to target, the system generates a list.

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