Chennai,  Tamil Nadu is mulling automatic addition/deletion of family member details in the ration cards as a part of its data-based governance system, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said on Monday.

He also said the Special Task Force set up to reconcile, identify and access the funds of the government departments/government-run societies/statutory institutions/local bodies kept outside the Treasury has tracked a sum of Rs 1,946.31 crore that can be immediately remitted back to the government account.

Rajan said the Economic Advisory Council has supported data-centric governance and has suggested data bases, such as the Civil Registration System that maintains records of births and deaths, can enable new additions (to the families) and deletions (on deaths in the family) to be carried over directly to the family card database.

According to him, such automatic inclusion and deletion will be an important benefit offered to the people of the State and will result in cost efficiency and in effective programme implementation.

"For instance, such an approach would eliminate the possibility of deceased persons continuing to receive old age pensions and monthly allocation of rice in the Public Distribution System - instances of which we have discovered during the review over the past few months," he said.

Similarly, analysis of crop loan and jewel loan data of co-operative banks has led to the unearthing of several irregularities.

"For instance, the same person has taken multiple loans from multiple societies for the same small piece of agricultural land. At some places jewel loans have been given without any jewels being pledged. All such issues will be effectively addressed by this new approach," Rajan added.

On the identification of unutilised funds, he said more funds could be identified for return to the government Treasury.

"For carrying out this task, the Special Task Force will be given an extension up to 31stMarch, 2022 and directed to undertake field based audit and reconciliation," Rajan said.

In order to put an end to idle non-utilisation of funds in the future, Rajan said direct disbursal of funds from the government treasury to the beneficiaries - pensioners, government servants receiving salaries, recipients of scholarships and of final payments for works and supply of goods and services - through the Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS) will be implemented.