Technology helped in transparency: Rs 36,000 crore saved through DBT, says PM Modi

A whopping Rs 36,000 crore were saved through use of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday and stressed on the use of information technology to check leakages of government subsidy. "We can change things and technology can help us in a big way. You must have seen these days. I calculated that through DBT (Aadhaar-based transfer) Rs 36,000 crore saving is done which was going somewhere else.

"It does not mean that I have put Rs 36,000 crore in the government's account but we have directed it to the right place. If this was not there it would have gone into someone's pocket. If we use technology to its fullest, to bring in transparency, it would play an important rule (in improving governance and checking leakages)," he said.

The Prime Minister was addressing valedictory function of vigilance awareness week organised by Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in Delhi. The DBT programme, a major reform initiative to check leakages of welfare funds, was launched on January 1, 2013 with regard to 24 selected schemes of eight ministries.

Through DBT all cash benefits are transferred directly to the beneficiary's bank account. The Centre has asked all its departments and state governments to widen the scope of DBT scheme to include all monetary and in kind transfers to beneficiaries. In order to give further fillip to it, DBT Mission was last year shifted to Cabinet Secretariat and its implementation is being monitored by the Prime Minister's Office.