Centre to train babus for better implementation of Direct Benefits Transfer scheme

NEW DELHI: To ensure effective implementation of its showpiece Direct Benefits Transfer scheme, the Centre will be soon providing intensive training to IAS officers and cutting-edge level bureaucrats in 60 focus districts where DBT scheme is already operational. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) will be in charge of this special training programme on the cash transfer scheme.

“We plan to complete this training programme by March 31, 2014. In order to bring the attitudinal change, besides imparting required knowledge and skill in the functional areas, the programme is being conducted for the officers at the cutting edge levels in the districts chosen by the states,” a senior DoPT official told ET.

A proposal to this effect has also been submitted by the DoPT to the Cabinet Secretariat. The central government official said certain short-comings in terms of the understanding and reach of the DBT scheme had been noticed by the Centre at the cutting-edge level of bureaucrats posted in the states and the DoPT has decided to hence train the officials themselves instead of depending on the state governments.

The DBT programme was rolled out by the prime minister on January 1, 2013. It began initially from 43 districts and has now been expanded to 121 districts from July 1, 2013.

An official said the step to train the cutting-edge level bureaucrats involved in the scheme’s implementation was taken after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech on Civil Services Day this April, in which he said the DBT scheme now covered 121 districts in the country and asked co-operation from the civil servants for its success.

“DBT will... help in curbing wastages and leakages, and result in greater financial inclusion. Direct Benefits Scheme also give a sense of empowerment to our people, increase their faith in the processes of Governance and therefore have a far larger positive effect than can be measured by the direct advantages they confer,” the prime minister had said.