Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today described the Government’s ambitious direct cash transfer scheme as “nothing less than magical”.
He said the move is aimed at plugging the loopholes in the delivery mechanism and ensure that poor get complete benefits of government schemes.
Explaining the details of direct cash transfer scheme and its benefits to party workers, Chidambaram termed the scheme as “nothing less than magical”.Through the cash transfer scheme, the Government plans to transfer cash benefits of over two dozen central schemes directly to beneficiary accounts. The scheme will be launched in 51 districts on January 1.
“The current high fiscal and current account deficits, coupled with low investment, have forced us to take some stringent measures,” Chidambaram told a closed-door election workshop here for the 2014 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections, according to Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre.
Thakre said the Finance Minister also expressed the confidence that these measures will help the economy come out of the present tough phase and that the next two years would see the economy marching ahead with speed.