n Weekly payments for workers to be made via Aadhaar-enabled a/cs

The direct benefit transfer (DBT) system is set to be used for payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA). A senior government official requesting anonymity told FE that in the 46 districts where the first phase of the scheme is under way, the weekly payments for the MNREGA workers will be made through Aadhaar-enabled bank/post office accounts from October 1.

Currently, the rural development ministry is making wage payments to workers through the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) using the software ?MNREGA Soft?. Using this facility, the ministry has already rolled out pilot projects to make direct payments to the bank account of workers in five states namely Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tripura, Orissa and Gujarat. Now, the ministry plans to use the DBT platform for MNREGA payments in the 46 districts, covering around 1.95 crore workers, out of which 85 lakh are active participants in the scheme.

The ministry currently has data for about 12.68 lakh of aadhaar cardholders in these 46 districts out of which 9.14 lakh have bank and post-office accounts. So far, the DBT mechanism has been used for 26 schemes, including scholarships and pension. As part of the DBT scheme, the government has managed to disburse R23 crore through the aadhaar payment bridge and over R57 crore through other mechanisms, including the NEFT.

After the wage list and payments are finalised based on the muster rolls, a fund transfer order (FTO) will be generated, which would then be digitally signed by the Gram Pradhan and confirmed at the block level after scrutiny. The FTO will then be shared with the nodal bank, which will debit the DBT account and credit the account of workers or vendor, either through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge or NEFT. A similar process will be followed with the post offices.

Separately, the finance ministry is planning to include a provision of making welfare payments through post offices using DBT process in 51 districts by end of September. This will include MNREGA payments as well. Enabling the post offices with the core banking solutions, the ministry is working out details regarding commissions and tenures for business correspondents to roll out micro ATM facility in these districts also.

The DBT platform, based on the unique identification number, will eliminate duplicates and ghosts or non-existent people getting benefits. The system will bring more efficiency, accountability and transparency in the process. MGNREGA guarantees employment of 100 days to every rural household. The job guarantee scheme is one of the biggest flagship schemes of the UPA government.

With government departments slipping on DBT targets during the first phase, the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday asked all central departments to get cracking for the next phase beginning July 1.

PM Manmohan Singh had last week conceded to the national committee on DBT that the project had faced some unanticipated difficulties, but cleared its expansion to 78 more districts by July 1 and agreed to provide LPG subsidy in 20 districts from 15 May.

PMO has asked all states to digitise beneficiary database and work on tweaking processes to ensure direct transfer of funds to beneficiary accounts and real-time monitoring.