Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram would be visiting Puducherry on Monday to review the progress of rolling out the Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) scheme. The government is all set to roll out 15 Centrally-sponsored schemes under the DCT from January 1.
A team of Puducherry government officials led by Development Commissioner and Finance Secretary Raajiv Yaduvanshi, Vishwa Mehta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health disclosed, said that under the scheme the payment to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries would be made through the Aadhar payment gateway.
There are 16,516 beneficiaries under these 15 schemes, out of which bank accounts have been linked with Aadhar for 15,432 beneficiaries.
Special camps have been set up to facilitate people to obtain their Aadhar cards, which would go on for a month and everyone. Those beneficiaries who still do not have Aadhar should immediately approach the camps, as without the Aadhar the beneficiary would not get the financial assistance, scholarship or subsidy.
Vishwa Mehta said that Puducherry is among the three districts in the country to have more than 90 per cent coverage under Aadhar. Being small with good accessibility, Puducherry is ideally placed for successfully implementing the DCT.
Indian Bank Zonal Manager said that once the account of the beneficiary is credited with the financial assistance, the beneficiary will be alerted through SMS. Moreover, she claimed that the beneficiary would be provided with an ATM card to easily withdraw the money.