The Direct benefit transfer scheme for LPG will be rolled out in 269 more districts between September this year and 1st of January next year. Briefing the media in New Delhi this evening, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has decided to extend the scheme in 34 districts in September, 44 in October, 46 in November, 40 in December and 105 in January next year. This will take the total number of districts to 289 as the scheme is already existing in 20 districts. He said, banks have been asked to focus on the opening of bank accounts of beneficiaries and linking them to AADHAAR.

The Finance Minister said, around half of the country will be covered in terms of districts under the scheme.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA, today gave its approval for continuing the scheme of Ground Water Management and Regulation to deal with problems of over exploitation and contamination. The scheme with an expenditure of 3,319 crore rupees during the 12th Plan involves new components of aquifer mapping and participatory ground water management.

It will be implemented in parts of 28 States and 7 Union Territories covering 8.89 lakh sq km during the Plan. Capacity building of functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions , local community, grass root workers, Kisan Vikas Kendras will be undertaken to train them in basic data collection and interpretation.

The CCEA also gave its nod to the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme during the 12th Plan period with a major focus on powerlooms.
The total budget outlay for continuation of the scheme will be about 11,900 crore rupees out of which 2,400 crore rupees have been allocated during the financial year 2013-14.

AIR correspondent reports, the scheme is one of the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Textiles and has helped the industry to garner investments of 2.43 thousand crore rupees. It aims at promoting indigenous manufacturing of the textile machinery.