East Godavari :(Agency/Newsonair)-The Union Minister for Rural Development, Jairam Ramesh along with the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Kirankumar Reddy formally launched the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme on pilot basis from Gollaprolu village in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh today.The Union Minister described it as small step but an historic leap towards benefiting the poor and the marginalized.
The Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) being implemented in about 38 districts in the first phase in the country also gets underway in 4 more districts of Andhra Pradesh.
AIR correspondent reports, Schemes including social security pensions, payments under the employment guarantee scheme, public distribution system, and stipend to the children returned to schools from work, Janani Suraksha Yojana, and scholarships will be covered under the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. Micro ATM cards have been provided to beneficiaries under various schemes and the use of the card has been demonstrated to them. Almost seventy-five per cent of the beneficiaries have been provided with the ATM cards for direct cash transfer into their bank accounts.
Speaking on the occasion Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said by August 2013 all payments for the select schemes would be paid through Direct Benefit Transfer method to the beneficiaries.
Both public and private sector banks have been drawn to provide micro ATM services where each ATM caters to a thousand beneficiaries. Later on the Ministers distributed linkage loans to members of women self-help groups on this occasion. Earlier in the day the Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh launched the ‘Indira Jalaprabha’ block at Vajrakootam village of Gollaprolu mandal which caters irrigation water supply to 9.20 acres of land being cultivated by SC/ST beneficiaries.
