Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed the state's Chief Secretary N K Das to make National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) more transparent and effective so that it reaches out to all deserving beneficiaries.
The Chief Minister gave the direction to Das following a letter by Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh urging for further improvement in implementing NSAP during the current financial year, official sources said here today.
Ramesh had pointed out in the letter that immediate action must be taken for updating and completing database of all pension beneficiaries.
The NSAP database with bank/post office account details as well as Aadhar number, use of bank/post office account number to transfer pension amount and launching a drive to enrol pensioners who have not so far enrolled for Aadhar in order to position NSAP for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) should be done immediately, Ramesh said.
He also called for steps on uploading database of all beneficiaries on NSAP website and requested Gogoi's intervention in giving direction to the departments concerned to make full use of the software to fully realise NSAP's objective vis-a-vis pension payment directly into beneficiary account.
NSAP comprises five schemes namely Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme, Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme, National Family Benefit Scheme and Annapurna.
