Districts to be rated on skilling, e-Payments, housing, crop cover

NEW DELHI: How much was the cash outflow per capita from banks in September-October 2017, compared with that of September-October 2016? This has been fixed as one of the major criteria for the districts to win the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration in year 2018.

For these annual PM awards, four priority programmes have been identified under which the best districts will be chosen in 2018. One of them is the `Promotion of Digital Payments' and period of consideration is April 1, 2016, to December 31, 2017. The Centre decided to go for demonetisation last November, putting 86% of the currency out of circulation while stressing the importance of digital payments.

As many as 12 parameters have now been specified by the government for awarding best districts promoting digital payments. One will be that how many bank accounts in a district were seeded with Aadhaar and mobile numbers and the status of digital payment facilities at ration and fertilizer shops.

Other parameters specified by the Centre are the number of BHIM transactions per capita in a district and incentive delivered to the beneficiary for BHIM, Aadhaar schemes in the district, cash outflow per capita from banks in Sep-Oct 2017 compared with that of SeptemberOctober 2016, and the existing digital payment acceptance infrastructure with registered mer chants in a district.

It will also be assessed that how many gover nment established touch points are accepting money through digital payments and whether there has been an increase in revenue collected from electricity bill payment through digital modes in a district. The other specified parameters are -“the number of POS (Point of Sale) machines per capita in the district, registered merchants having Bharat QR code in the districts and the number of Business Correspondence (BCs) with respect to rural population in a district,“ as per the Centre's criteria specified to all districts.

The overall strategy and methodolog y adopted to promote Digital Payment in a district, innovations adopted in implementation and the transparency and accountability involved will also be assessed.

The other three priority programmes under which PM awards will be given in 2018 on Civil Services Day include Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) for giving training to rural youth for jobs, Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (Urban and Rural) and the PM Crop Insurance Scheme.