492 schemes, 37 services identified as DBT applicable
SRINAGAR, JUNE 22: Union Cabinet Secretary,
Pradeep Kumar Sinha today asked the states to ensure faster rollout of the
Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) by taking up Aadhaar seeding in a mission mode.
He called for setting time-lines to ensure cent percent seeding, which he said
requires lot of work by the States.
The Union Cabinet Secretary today reviewed the progress of DBT and
Aadhaar seeding with Union Secretaries, Chief Secretaries and Finance
Secretaries of various states and the union territories through a
video-conference.
Finance Secretary, J&K, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Commissioner
Secretary, IT, Sanjeev Verma, Secretary Education & Tourism, Farooq Ahmad
Shah, Secretary Social Welfare, Sajad Ahmad Khan, Special Secretary to Chief
Secretary, Arshid Ayub, and other officers of the State Government also participated in the
video-conference.
The meeting was informed that 492 schemes and 37 services of 68 union
ministries and departments have been identified as DBT applicable where the
financial benefits are directly transferred into the bank accounts of the
beneficiaries. It was told that out of 492 schemes 290 have already been
brought on the Government of India’s DBT portal while the remaining 202
schemes will be linked with the portal by March 2018.
The meeting was further informed that DBT cells have already been
created in 76 central ministries, 28 states and 7 union territories.
To ensure speedy progress on DBT, the State Governments were requested
to ensure that all individual bank accounts are seeded with Aadhaar and mobile
numbers. For the purpose, role of Departments like Social Welfare, Education,
Rural Development and Food and Supplies and Banks was highlighted with
instructions to monitor on regular basis, the progress, of Aadhaar seeding.
It was informed that unless individual bank accounts are not seeded with
Aadhaar and Mobile Number, Government will not be able to transfer entitled
benefits through DBT under various schemes to the beneficiaries. Emphasis was
laid to prioritize issuance of Aadhaar cards by holding of camps in the
districts and also in the educational institutions to achieve the targets of
seeding.
The banks were advised to utilize existing banking channels and other
media communication channels to inform the account holders in regard to Aadhaar
and Mobile seeding.
Finance Secretary, J&K briefed the Union Cabinet Secretary on the
progress of Aadhaar enrolment and status of connectivity and reach of internet,
mobile and banking in the State. To fast track completion of Aadhaar enrolment
process in J&K, the Finance Secretary requested the Union Cabinet Secretary
to support the State Government in eliminating dark spots viz-a-viz
connectivity and to also take up with the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd
(ECIL), the issues regarding re-starting of Aadhaar generation by the vendors
for the left out population.
