Govt comes up with fool-proof DBT system for students’ scholarship

By Vikas Vaidya

Maharashtra Government has come up with well-planned system for the scholarship disbursement through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. The system now evolved tried to remove several loopholes which were there when it was brought two years ago. The only thing still remained unaddressed is the issue of students fleeing with the amount deposited into their accounts.
As per the approval of the High Powered Committee, Maharashtra’s Information Technology Corporation Ltd. (Maha IT) has taken up the development of the Maharashtra State DBT and Services Portal (Maha DBT Portal).
As per the new arrangement, the beneficiary has to submit the application with all details which would be scrutinized, it was getting done earlier also. But this scrutiny will be done by various stakeholders. Post completion of all required approvals from each of the institutions, the application shall be forwarded for bill generation and subsequently for disbursements.
Maharashtra DBT portal is integrated with Budget Estimation, Allocation
and Monitoring System (BEAMS) which is the on-line bill portal of Finance
Department. Till now the connection with Finance Department was missing resulting into so many problems, like delay in approval of financial issues. As BEAMS has brought into the system the process will become easier.
In order to implement seamless integration with BEAMS and to ensure
de-duplication of work, all departments are required to adhere to the
certain requirements to raise treasury bills for the approved
applications, through the DBT Portal. Till now the mapping factor was not taken into consideration. The new modified system will obtain scheme codes against each of the schemes and map them with the Treasury Systems.
Once the bill is received from the departments, after required processing and approval, the Treasury officer shall transfer the approved amount of fund to the scheme specific bank account, which is registered in BEAMS by the respective department.
Treasury officer shall not demand the list of beneficiaries along with the bill. It is to be noted in this context that the Accountant General (AG), Mumbai and AG Nagpur offices shall be provided several features in the DBT portal, for the purpose of Audit process.
The payment file which is sent from the DBT portal to PFMS (Public Financial Management System) shall contain authorisation of Principal Secretary, IT and the same file shall be sent to “Central Pool Account” Bank, so that the bank can finally cross check the authentication and can transfer the benefit to the beneficiary account.
The validation and registration is primarily done to make sure that the banking details of the applicants (Aadhaar Linked Accounts) are valid and active and future payments can be made.
After giving deep thouoght the DBT system has got developed. But, it has failed to address the issue of students fleeing with the money deposited into their accounts. In this fool-proof system, it seems that no effort is made by the Government to come up with the solution to the issue. The system does not tell how authorities would compel students to handover the money to the concerned institutions. It means that the trouble with institutions would continue and they have to follow  every student to get their fees amount into their kitty.