DBT funds in post offices soon
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Racing against time to make the ambitious
Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) visibly effective before the 2014 general
elections, the government will bring money transaction through post offices
under the DBT ambit. This desperate move is aimed as a remedy to banks opening
accounts of DBT beneficiaries at snail’s pace.
head of the Prime Minister’s review meeting
with key ministers, the government announced that post offices will also be
included from October 1 while three pension schemes — for old age persons,
widows and the disabled — would now be covered under DBT from July 1.
The list would also include districts where the beneficiaries’ biometrics were
collected under the National Population Register (NPR). They include Odisha,
West Bengal, UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
Several complaints had poured in after the
scheme was launched from January 1 about the problems of the banks to open
zero-balance accounts of the beneficiaries, especially in rural areas.
The government also targets to expand the DBT to cover 78 more
districts in the next phase of the DBT rollout which will begin from July 1.
To plug the loopholes, PM’s focus will be on
digitisation of databases and opening of more bank accounts. “There will be a
thrust on digitisation of data of beneficiaries in all districts, irrespective
of the rollout of DBT as this is a critical activity which need not wait and
can be done in parallel,” said a press release.
“The department of financial services will be
asked to ensure coverage of all beneficiaries with bank accounts. It will
ensure that all Micro-ATMs that are procured will have specifications such that
they are inter-operable and are Aadhaar enabled,” the release added.