Signing of a MoU between the Principal Secretary Finance and Chairman J&K Bank facilitating transfer of entitlements directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries opened in different banks operating in the districts is undoubtedly a big step towards providing good governance in the State. The envisaged model for the roll out of the Scheme is ‘one district – many banks – one leader bank’. There are many schemes run or sponsored by the Centre in which individuals and organizations are involved. They will become the beneficiaries of the scheme as their entitlements including cash payments would be covered by the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding. It will be reminded that the Union Planning Commission has so far identified 129 districts in the entire country where the scheme has been implemented. But so far the State of J&K has not been brought within the purview of the scheme. In the firs place six districts, three from the valley and three from Jammu will be selected on trial basis and after that the scheme will be extended to all the twenty two districts of the State. J&K Bank has been designated as the Leader Bank in all the 22 districts of the State and has been entrusted the responsibility of ensuring transfer of entitlements directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries opened in different banks operating in the districts. The envisaged model for the roll out of the Scheme is ‘one district – many banks – one leader bank’. As all other Central Sector/Centrally Sponsored Schemes under implementation in the State are also being targeted to be covered by EBT in a phased manner, by July 31, 2014 this is going to be a boon to the State in totality. In the meanwhile the Directorate of Census Operations, J&K has already made substantial progress in the National Population Register (NPR) enrolments in 16 districts of the State. Once the enrolment exercise is complete, this NPR data for the State will be utilized by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for the generation of ‘Aadhaar’ for the people of the State, including the beneficiaries of Government entitlements. This will pave way for the banks to do the Aadhaar seeding of beneficiaries’ accounts in due course of time.
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