Replying today an un-starred question of Dr Gumma Thanuja Rani  the Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey informed Lok Sabha today that as far as the scholarship schemes implemented by Ministry of Tribal Affairs for ST students in concerned, Ministry has not received any complaint regarding accessibility and efficiency of the DBT mode.

Further, the Ministry of Rural Development has informed that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), 2005 is an Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The Ministry mandates the provision of an additional 50 days of wage employment (beyond the stipulated 100 days) to every Scheduled Tribe Household in a forest area, provided that these households have no other private property except for the land rights provided under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

In addition to this, there is a provision for providing up to an additional 50 days of wage employment in a financial year in drought/natural calamity-affected notified rural areas. Further, as per Section 3(4) of the Act, the State Governments may make provision for providing additional days of employment beyond the period guaranteed under the Act from their own funds. Under the scheme, 100% of wage payments are made by the Central Government directly to the accounts of beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) protocol.

The Ministry of Rural Development has taken various steps to ensure the timely payment of wages to workers including improvement of National Electronic Fund Management System (Ne-FMS), intensive consultation with State Governments and other stakeholders, formulation of Standard Operating Procedure and reviewing the status of timely payment. Further, continued efforts have been undertaken by the Ministry through various technological interventions i.e. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (APBS).

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(Release ID: 2159083)