FM to review preparatory works for cash transfer scheme

Finance Minister P Chidambaram would visit some districts where the direct cash transfer scheme is to be rolled out from January 1, to get first-hand account of the preparatory works.

"The Central government has taken all efforts to implement the scheme. I will be going to Puducherry, Chittoor, Tumkur in Karnataka and Wardha in Maharashtra to get a first hand account of the preparatory works," he said at a function here.

The Congress-led UPA Government plans to provide direct cash transfers of benefits in 34 schemes in selected 51 districts from January 1, 2013.

Mr Chidambaram pointed out that Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had met heads of all these districts, barring eight in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh which are facing elections and that he too had recently discussed the scheme with 293 bank officers in Rajasthan.

He hoped districts in Tamil Nadu would also be included in the scheme (in future) and said the Centre's objective was to cover all districts in the country under this scheme before December 2013.