Lucknow, Mar 16 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had last year transferred Rs 56,000 crore directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries of various schemes being run by the central and state government.

A government spokesperson said that due to the direct bank transfers (DBT), the government had saved more than Rs 4,402.05 crore in a single year.

The spokesman said: "Many irregularities were committed earlier in transferring funds under the various government schemes. This practice has been stopped now. With the DBT, middlemen have been eliminated from the process and the entire procedure has been made transparent."

The state government transferred money directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries of 136 schemes of 27 departments.

During the Covid-induced lockdown last year, the government transferred funds to accounts of lakhs of farmers, MNREGA workers, migrant labourers, women, students and pensioners.

The government also transferred Rs 2,806.10 crore as subsidy on gas cylinders, Rs 1,412 crore for ration cards made under the National Food Security Scheme, Rs 162.58 crore under Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme, Rs 16.69 crore under the Old Age Pension Scheme, Rs 1.55 lakh under National Agricultural Development Scheme, Rs 1.92 lakh under Tuberculosis Eradication Scheme and Rs 4.63 crore under Divyang Pension Scheme.

"DBT helped us to verify a beneficiary's Aadhaar and mobile number easily and money is transferred into the Jan Dhan account without hassles. The practice helps in eradicating middlemen as well as ensuring that the money goes to the real beneficiaries," the spokesperson said.

The government said that over the past four years, Rs 2.53 lakh crore has been paid to farmers through DBT under various schemes. This includes Rs 36,000 crore as loan waivers, Rs 64,000 crore as minimum support price, Rs 1.22 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers and Rs 27,101 crore to 2.42 crore farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.

The rural development department has said that over 1.14 crore workers were given employment under MNREGA till March 5, 2021. During this period, Rs 7,669.34 crore was paid to them.

A sum of Rs 445.92 crore was transferred through DBT to women help groups and their organisations working under the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

Another Rs 1,625.47 crore was transferred to OBC students in the last four years as scholarship, Rs 27.95 lakh to beneficiaries of the destitute women pension and Rs 112.22 crore under Kanya Sumangala Yojana.