About Us
With the aim of reforming Government delivery system by re-engineering the existing process in welfare schemes for simpler and faster flow of information/funds and to ensure accurate targeting of the beneficiaries, de-duplication and reduction of fraud Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was started on 1st January 2013 by the Government of India.
In the first phase, DBT was initiated in 43 districts of India which include three districts of Punjab namely Gurdaspur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) and Fatehgarh Sahib. Later the scheme was extended to 78 more districts of the country in which two more districts of Punjab - Jalandhar and Barnala were added.
Punjab is very close to achieve universal coverage of Aadhaar in the state. State Registrar, Punjab is facilitating the Aadhaar enrolments and updations services through centres in citizen service delivery centres of State Government across the state. In addition, the focus is on the enrolment of children below the age of 5 years and new-borns. Enrolment facilities for enrolment of children and infants have been started at anganwadis and Govt. Hospitals.
Banking infrastructure is also an important part of DBT. Banks have been mandated to set up in-house enrolment facilities in their branches. In addition, they have been asked to complete Aadhaar based E-KYC for all active accounts to enable them to use Aadhaar as their financial address and receive their benefit in their Aadhaar seeded accounts.
Government of Punjab had setup State DBT Cell at Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances to monitor the progress of implementation of various DBT schemes in Punjab. Additional Secretary -cum- Director, Department of Governance Reforms is the Nodal Officer for State DBT Cell. Punjab State E Governance Society (PSeGS) is the implementing agency for State DBT Cell. Various Implementing Departments of State Government have also formed their internal DBT Cells to consolidate the DBT related activities of their respective departments. The below mentioned is the list of Nodal Officers for various State Departments for DBT: