The award was received by Dr Pravin Jha, Special Secretary, Department of Information Technology (IT) on Monday in Jaipur as IT Secretary NN Sinha could not personally receive the award. The awards were given jointly by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Union Minister of State V Narayansami.
The team of awardees was led by NN Sinha, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Jharkhand, AK Satyajeet, OSD of JAPIT, Rajesh Prasad, manager CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd; Damodar Reddy, senior manager, United Telecoms Ltd., Shashi Bharat, manager, Alternative of India Development.
The award has been conferred on the State for electronic benefit transfer through pragya kendras project, which was aimed at direct cash transfer to beneficiaries through financial institutions. The Jharkhand government’s initiative had shown remarkable progress as compared to other states and union territories.
Started in December 2010, the panchayat bank-cum-pragya kendra project gained much momentum. Initially, with specific reference to MNREGA benefit disbursals, a one-block-one-bank concept was taken up and it was decided that all beneficiaries would be served by a specific bank in respective panchayats so that payments could be streamlined. With the allocation of all 260 blocks to various banks, especially SBI and Bank of India, it was found that the kiosk banking model and online biometric authentication model of SBI scored above the rest of the smart card models. In 2011 it was thus decided by the State that the kiosk banking model would be the preferred model and smart cards would not be allowed for electronic benefit transfer scheme.
Soon, Bank of India adopted the model and started working in panchayas with CSCs aggressively. Both the banks, SBI and Bank of India, till Dec 2012, operationalized 450 CSCs as panchayat bank-cum-pragya kendras and even tested the Aadhar-based transactions. In October 2012, Ramgarh district was awarded the best performer in Aadhar-based disbursals. In all, approximately Rs 4.5 crore payments have been disbursed with approximately 1 lakh new beneficiaries added to the platform. Payments are being made for MNREGA, scholarships, old age pensions and widow pension schemes.
The Government had, in August 2012 directed all relevant departments to start integrating to the project. Aadhar will be a natural authentication process. Banks have now been directed to work on the model and start operationalising all 4562 panchayats as panchayat banks and start disbursals by July 2013.
This is a prestigious award for the State as the project has not only concentrated on actual service to citizens, but integrates available projects and infrastructure for the betterment of citizen convenience.
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Quelle/Source: The Daily Pioneer, 13.02.2013
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