Haryana CM Mr Hooda launches Direct Benefits Transfer Scheme in two  districts of Haryana

Sends e-mails to the Deputy Commissioners of the Ambala and Sonipat districts to start operating the Scheme

                                    Seven schemes are being covered under this project

Mr Hooda compliments Aadhaar teams, bankers and Haryana officers for making it possible

New Delhi , February 1, 2013

 Haryana Chief Minister Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda today launched the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) Scheme in Haryana. In first phase, it has been launched for seven schemes in Ambala and Sonipat districts of the state.

            The Chief Minister Mr Hooda launched the scheme by sending an email to Deputy Commissioners of Ambala and Sonepat districts, which was followed by disbursal of the due amount to 3,338 beneficiaries. These beneficiaries were transferred an amount of Rs 323.33 lakh. With this disbursal, Haryana become the leading state to have distributed 25 percent of the total central schemes beneficiaries of the country from January 1, 2013. Prime Minister Office had informed the state government about it.

            Mr Hooda had a video conference with the Deputy Commissioners of the two districts and beneficiaries, who received the amount today. Mr Hooda described the scheme as a gift to people from the UPA government on the occasion of New Year. He said that the DBT scheme would be beneficial to the poor as they would get the money in time. He congratulated the concerned on Haryana becoming the leading state in DBT scheme among the central beneficiaries.

            Mr. Hooda announced that the state government would launch the DBT scheme in the whole state would be launched from April 1, 2013 after its successful implementation in Ambala and Sonipat districts of the state.  The scheme would be launched in the whole state after reviewing the performance in the two districts. He informed that state’s social security scheme has already been implemented in village Durana of District, where 219 beneficiaries have been benefitted.   

Mr Hooda informed that in first phase, Haryana government has launched the DBT scheme for Post Matric Scholarship for SC Students, Post Matric Scholarship for OBC Students, National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme, National Scheme for incentive for Girl Children for Secondary Education, Post Matric Scholarship for Minority Students, National Means cum Merit Scholarship for Minorities Scholars and Janani Suraksha Yojana. The total numbers of beneficiaries under the above schemes is 9639 in Ambala and 6509 in Sonepat, he added.

Launching the scheme in New Delhi today, Mr Hooda said that all the beneficiaries in the seven schemes in two districts have been enrolled for generation of Aadhaar number and Adhaar numbers of 6552 (68%) beneficiaries in district Amabla and 5227 (80%) beneficiaries in district Sonepat had been generated till yesterday. We have facilitated the opening of bank accounts of all those beneficiaries, who did not have their bank account, he added.

Describing the DBT scheme as a ‘giant leap towards transparent and people friendly governance’, Mr Hooda said that it would prove to be a big help for beneficiaries as the money would now go straight into their bank accounts. The Aadhaar enabled DBT would help Union Government in providing end to end traceability and availability of funds transferred. Aadhaar linked DBT would help in providing de-duplicated database to the Government while for individual beneficiaries it would facilitate cash withdrawal from Business Correspondents or micro ATM across India, he added.

          Mr. Hooda said that Haryana Government has been implementing various schemes of direct cash transfer to the targeted beneficiaries. With the launching of the present scheme, however, a huge qualitative change has been brought out by linking the beneficiaries to UID or Aadhaar numbers, he noted.

Mr Hooda also asked the implementing agencies to put in place ‘a very robust machinery and manpower so that the scheme succeed in letter and spirit’. The detailed networking and forward and backward linkages should not be lost sight of at any cost and in fact, the actual hard work would start now, he added while adding a word of caution for the implementing agencies, particularly the banks.

Mr Hooda said that to begin with, Haryana Government has decided to operate the DBT scheme only for Government of India’s schemes and state schemes would be incorporated later after the stabilization of the system in the state.       

Mr Hooda said that direct cash benefit scheme is a path breaking initiative of our social policy.  It would provide greater security to the poor. It is also a significant step in our move to achieve financial inclusion.   Fifty years ago who could think of poor people interacting with the banks for routine transactions? It is a reality today. We can legitimately hope now that eventually a day would come when all benefits and schemes would be universally accessed through such a scheme, he further added. 

Mr Hooda said that DBT scheme is a move towards transparent governance as it will help in eliminating bogus and spurious claimants.  It will instill a sense of dignity and confidence in the minds of beneficiaries. Secondly, this initiative will enable the beneficiaries to make choices in how to spend their money, because, regular payment will enable them to plan their day-to-day expenditure issues.  In a way, it will provide a kind of insurance to the poor, he added.

Mr Hooda said that Haryana Government has been implementing various schemes of direct cash transfer to the targeted beneficiaries, for quite some time. With the launching of the present scheme, however, a huge qualitative change has been brought out by linking the beneficiaries to UID or Aadhaar numbers.  Aadhaar or UID is an end-to-end solution to a number of issues and this is the fundamental basis of an individual’s identity, he added.

The Aadhaar Payment Bridge provides transparent mechanism to check the outflow of cash benefit to the beneficiary account. A MIS is generated every evening whereby the concerned department could verify how much amount has been transferred to which beneficiary and in which bank account. In case the cash transfer has not been done, the department would immediately come to know, the payment could not be processed. Aadhaar Payment Bridge also ensures that there is no duplication, falsification in transfer of benefits to identified beneficiaries under the identified government schemes.

Haryana Chief Secretary Mr PK Chaudhery, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr Chhattar Singh, DDG UIDAI Mrs Keshni Anand Arora, Principal OSD Mr MS Chopra, Media Advisor Mr Shiv Bhattia, Secretary Coordination Mr TC Gupta, Director General Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs, Mr Sudhir Rajpal and number of senior officers were also present on the occasion.