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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Chouhan's Madhya Pradesh steals Congress’ direct benefit transfer thunder

Chouhan's Madhya Pradesh steals Congress’ direct benefit transfer thunder

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published Published on Jul 26, 2013   modified Modified on Jul 26, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: As the Centre stitches together its plan to roll out the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh seems all set to achieve full coverage of some benefits through the scheme.

The DBT scheme has been touted as a game-changer for the ruling Congress party in the lead-up to the general elections in 2014. Ironically, a BJP-ruled state seems to have taken the lead to roll out the benefit plan.

"We have achieved 100% rollout on DBT on MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and Rs 350 crore has already been paid," Aruna Sharma, additional chief secretary (panchayat and rural development department) and development commissioner told TOI.

The state has achieved the milestone through its electronic financial management system. Through its Samagra Samajik Suraksha Mission, the Shivraj Singh Chauhan government has been able to map families in all its 53,000 villages and has identified 7.5 crore beneficiaries.

The programme of transferring pension through this system is already in place in 15 districts and more areas would be added soon. Sharma said more benefits such as health, housing, scholarships would be moved to beneficiaries through the DBT scheme soon. The system would also be linked to Aadhaar, she added.

Madhya Pradesh government's readiness to embrace the scheme which Congress launched with a populist "aapka paisa aapke haath" slogan comes amid indications that the Centre is yet to get a fix on how to roll out the ambitious scheme nationally. On Wednesday, PMO said the responsibility for implementation of the DBT scheme was being taken away from the Planning Commission to be assigned to the finance ministry: an acknowledgement of getting the banks on board.

The lead that Madhya Pradesh hopes to acquire will be in line with the pattern of non-Congress ruled states faring better, much to chagrin of Congress which has lamented the way governments belonging to opposition have profited politically by successfully implementing central schemes.

Sharma said MP has also put in place a massive plan to provide banking facility to its entire population for accessing the DBT scheme. Every district has been mapped and will have an ultra small branch within 5 km of any village. The state plans to set up 2,998 such branches and already 1,761 units are in place. Nearly all state-run banks have been engaged along with ICICI Bank to spread the net of financial inclusion.

Sharma said banking correspondents would handle such branches and every 15 days, a senior official from the regional branch would visit the area to ensure compliance.

The Centre on Wednesday said that in order to improve inter-ministerial coordination and hasten the rollout of the DBT scheme, the PM had approved shifting of the mission director and his officers from Planning Commission to the finance ministry. "This shift will enable direct supervision of the rollout of DBT across the country and resolution of inter-ministerial issues," a government statement said.

The DBT programme was rolled out on January and it began from 43 districts. This has now been expanded to 121 districts from July. "Transfer of LPG (cooking gas) subsidy through DBT was rolled out from 1.6.2013 and now covers 20 districts. In LPG, over 2.8 million DBT transactions valued at Rs 116 crores have taken place in 7 weeks," the statement said.

The government had appointed a mission director to manage the extensive work involved in rolling out DBT across the country.

The bulk of the work in DBT at the moment is in digitization of databases, re-engineering government processes for automating financial transactions, enrolling in Aadhaar and ensuring that every recipient has bank accounts seeded with Aadhaar.


The Times of India, 26 July, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Chouhans-Madhya-Pradesh-steals-Congresss-direct-benefit-transfer-thunder/articleshow/21352359.cms


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