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As political parties jockey to woo women with schemes and promises of sops every election season, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat feels that these are reflections of their assertion as independent citizens even as these schemes take away the discourse from women's rights and make them mere "beneficiaries". In an interview with PTI, she, however, welcomed cash transfer to women while stressing that it was not a "freebie" as women contribute almost seven per cent of the GDP through unpaid labour. It shows that political parties have realised that women cannot be taken for granted, said Karat, a well known activist who is among the founding members of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), one of the largest women organisations in the country. Asked about direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes for women being brought in by political parties in the run up to eleections, she said, "That is a result of women's movements, women's organisations, the struggles and the consciousness
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said Direct Benefit Transfer of Rs 34 lakh crore has been facilitated by the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and asked accounts officers to further enhance efficiency and transparency of the system. In a written message to the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and the Indian Civil Accounts Organisation (ICAO) on the occasion of the 48th Civil Accounts Day, Sitharaman said PFMS has been the cornerstone of establishing an efficient fund flow system alongside a robust payment and accounting network. PFMS is the management information system used by officers of the Indian Civil Accounts Service to maintain the accounts of the government. It is also used to transfer funds to beneficiary accounts of various government schemes via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). "The Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism, facilitated through PFMS, has led to the transfer of Rs 34 lakh crore from the government. This is a testament to the system's ...
About 90 lakh new beneficiaries have been added under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme through the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra in the last three-and-a-half-months, according to the agriculture ministry. Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY) launched on November 15, 2023 is the Centre's flagship initiative to raise awareness on its schemes. VBSY aims to achieve beneficiary saturation under government schemes. "Recently, as part of VBSY, undertaken to ensure saturation of the government's welfare schemes across more than 2.60 lakh gram panchayats, 90 lakh eligible farmers were added to PM-KISAN scheme," the ministry said in a statement. Under PM-KISAN, launched on February 2, 2019, eligible farmer families are provided a benefit of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 every four months. The benefit is transferred directly to bank accounts of eligible beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer mode, using modern digital technology. Since the