28.10.12

National Committee on Direct Cash Transfer


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a high-powered committee that will oversee the government’s ambitious cash transfer plan. Last month, the UPA government had announced a plan to directly transfer welfare benefits and subsidies into individual beneficiaries’ bank accounts, helping plug massive leakages in welfare schemes on which the government spends over Rs. 3,00,000 crore annually.
The National Committee on Direct Cash Transfer, which will be headed by the prime minister, will have 11 cabinet ministers, two ministers of state with independent charge, the deputy chairman Planning Commission, the chairman UIDAI and the cabinet secretary as its members. Moving from the present paper-based, cash-driven system to an electronic direct transfer system ‘would improve targeting, reduce corruption, eliminate waste, control expenditure and facilitate reforms’, the PMO had said in a statement announcing its decision last month.
The committee will coordinate action for the introduction of direct cash transfers under the various government schemes and programmes, the PMO said. The Committee would “provide an overarching vision and direction to enable direct cash transfers of benefits under various government schemes and programmes to individuals, leveraging the investments being made in the Aadhaar Project, financial inclusion and other initiatives of the Government, with the objective of enhancing efficiency, transparency and accountability,” the statement said. The committee will identify schemes for which direct transfer will be rolled out.

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