However, the Left has criticised the scheme and renewed its demand for strengthening the Public Distribution Scheme through which subsidised commodities of daily necessity are being supplied to the poor.
On Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced direct cash payout of social sector benefits and subsidies to the beneficiaries from Jan 1, 2013, in 51 districts across 14 states. The scheme would be rolled out all over the country by 2013-end - just months ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The significance of the move for the Congress can be gauged from the fact that the party's de facto number 2 Rahul Gandhi, who now heads the its poll coordination panel, would address a meeting of the Congress committees of the 51 districts where the scheme will begin.
Chidambaram denied the move was politically motivated.
"It has nothing to do with elections," he said, adding the move would help plug leakages and duplication in implementation of social sector schemes and result in savings for the government.
He rubbished the opposition's charge of the cash transfers being an attempt to bribe the voters. "It is absurd," Chidambaram said, reacting to the opposition remark.
