Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday reviewed progress on Direct Benefit Transfer System with the National Committee on Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT).
Progress was reviewed on the digitisation of databases, the opening of bank accounts, enrolment in Aadhaar and the seeding of databases with Aadhaar numbers. There will be a thrust on digitisation of data of beneficiaries in all districts, irrespective of the rollout of the DBT. The DBT will be expanded to cover districts in those States which have been allocated initially to Registrar General of India (RGI) for collecting biometric data under NPR. These are States with a large number of poor and hence, beneficiaries. They include Odisha, West Bengal, UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
MHA and the Registrar General of India (RGI) will work towards accelerating biometric collection in selected districts in NPR States so that coverage of 70-80 per cent is achieved by June 2013 and DBT could be rolled out from July 1 next. DBT is likely to be expanded to cover 78 more districts in the next phase of the rollout which will begin from July 1.
The three pension schemes managed by MoRD for old age persons, widows and the disabled would now be covered under DBT. Post Offices will also be included from October 1 next. With this, DBT will cover over 120 districts which is roughly one-fifth of the country. DBT will now become more visible .