Union Minister of Tourism G Kishan Reddy on October 16 highlighted the big achievement of the government in terms of digitisation and eliminating corruption in public schemes and said that about Rs 25 lakh crore has been distributed so far to several beneficiaries through Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana bank accounts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and dedicated 75 digital banking units to the nation; Reddy stated that half of the 50 crore Jan Dhan accounts belong to women.
“You all know when the Jan Dhan accounts were opened there was question whether it was required in our country. Today, we have distributed Rs 25 lakh crore on welfare schemes to poor people through Jan Dhan accounts. This is an achievement,” he said.
Reddy added that the poor have deposited Rs 1.75 lakh crore in Jan Dhan bank accounts as of today.
He added that there were numerous instances in some States where fraudsters using false identities stole the welfare programmes, pensions, and subsidies of the poor.
As many as four-crore fake ration cards were cancelled after the implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) and the same number of false LPG cylinder accounts, Reddy said.
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Claiming that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had earlier said only Rs 15 is reaching people as against the Centre’s disbursal of Rs 100 as the middlemen were pocketing Rs 85, the Union Minister said, “Today we can proudly say if the Centre sends Rs 100 to a poor man, even as single paise is not diverted.”
Kishan Reddy said he is asking the Telangana government for the bank account information of those students so that Rs 300 crore toward scholarships can be transferred. He claimed that the Centre is prepared to deposit scholarships to SC and ST students directly into their bank accounts.
Reddy, who is also the Minister for Development of the North-Eastern Region (DoNER), stated that prior to the implementation of the digitization system, all work in the north-east was done on paper.
