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The Reserve Bank has asked banks to take steps to complete account opening and seeding Aadhaar number in all the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) districts.
"While reviewing the progress of seeding of Aadhaar number in bank accounts, it was emphasised that banks should proactively take steps to open a large number of bank accounts, seed these accounts with Aadhaar numbers and view it as a sustainable and scaleable business opportunity," RBI said in a notification today.
The bank should closely monitor the progress in seeding of Aadhaar number in bank accounts of beneficiaries and put in place a system to provide acknowledgement to the beneficiary of seeding request, it said.
Further, RBI directed the banks to form DBT implementation co-ordination committee, along with state government department concerned, at district level and review the seeding of Aadhaar number in bank accounts.
The apex bank also directed banks to set up a complaint grievance redressal mechanism in each bank and nominate a complaint redressal officer in each district, to redress the grievances related to seeding of Aadhaar number in bank accounts.
In order to facilitate DBT for delivery of social welfare schemes through direct credit to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, the government had earlier also asked the banks to open accounts for all eligible individuals in camp mode with the support of local government authorities.
In the first phase roll-out of the DBT scheme on January 1, 2013, a total of 43 districts were included to transfer benefits directly to the beneficiary account.
The second phase of the scheme was began from July 1, covering 78 more districts. All the districts of the country would be covered under the DBT in a phased manner.
