KOLKATA: The World Bank has approved a $125-million loan (around Rs 1,000 crore) to Bengal to expand coverage of around 400 state-run social schemes, especially direct cash transfers targeted at the vulnerable sections, over the next four years.
The Bank said a recent survey had found that while food and in-kind transfers reached most poor and vulnerable households in Bengal, the coverage of cash transfers was weak. Access to social pensions by the elderly, widows and the disabled, in particular, was weak due to cumbersome application processes and lack of automated systems for application and eligibility verification.
