In order to boost cashless transactions in the country, all chief ministers of the country, including Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, have agreed on transferring government benefits to people's bank accounts directly from 2017. G S Sekhawat, Director of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has conducted a workshop on DBT with government officials and according to him they have agreed to adopt digital mode of transactions. He said that DBT would check corruption and increase transparency and accountability and that it would also save money in the state exchequers.
Sekhawat said that as per the plan, transactions in all departments under the state government will be made regularly in digital mode from January 1, 2017. He added that over Rs 36,000 crore of the government exchequer were saved in last two years for providing various payments and wages straightway to the beneficiaries under the DBT scheme. He also said that as many as 84 schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act being implemented by a host of central ministries and departments across the country, have been included in the DBT scheme.
The workshop was organised for all government departmental heads, drawing and disbursement officers and accounts officials to implement the online government payment. The workshop was attended by the principal secretary, finance and rural development of the state government, G S G Ayenger, and other top officials of the finance and other departments. The DBT scheme was launched in January 2013 in 43 districts in 16 states and all Union Territories. In the second phase it was extended to 78 more districts in July 2013. Currently, all districts of the countryare covered under this scheme.