The next phase of Direct Benefits Transfers (DBT) rollout will begin from 1st July this year in 78 more districts. With this, the total number of districts under the ambitious scheme of the UPA government will go up to 121 and about one fifth of the country will be covered. Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal which were not covered in the the first phase have been included in the second phase.

These decisions were taken yesterday in the review meeting of the National Committee on DBT which was chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by by all concerned Ministers including the Finance Minister, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission and Chairman, UIDAI. Secretaries of all Departments were also present.

It was also decided in the meeting to rollout direct benefit transfer of LPG subsidy in a phased manner beginning with one district and expanding to 20 districts by 15th of next month.

Old age, disability and widows Pension Schemes managed by the Rural Development Ministry will be added to 26 welfare schemes under DBT in all the covered districts from 1st of July 2013.

A full fledged DBT Mission Directorate will be created to enable smooth rollout, early identification of bottlenecks, resolution of bottlenecks and handholding of Ministries/ departments wherever necessary.

Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in his remarks, said this programme will transform the way in which government benefits are delivered to the people. He said, during the first three months of rollout of the scheme, a lot has been learnt about the challenges in implementing it. Dr. Singh asked all Ministries and Departments to dedicate themselves to the challenging task in rolling out the programme on which the implementation capacity of the government will be tested. Referring to the poor nature of tracking and monitoring systems, he stressed on putting a robust monitoring system in place.