With the extended deadline for Aadhaar-based payment system for receiving wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) set to end on June 30, the bank accounts of 93.4% of the workers in Kerala have been Aadhaar-seeded. Only four States have crossed 90% Aadhaar seeding, with Andhra Pradesh (96.1%) and Tamil Nadu (94.2%) ahead of Kerala.
The Union Rural Development Ministry had earlier stipulated February 1 as the deadline for shift to Aadhaar-based wage payment. Till now, wages for MGNREGS workers were being paid directly to their bank accounts. Under the new system, the wages will have to be paid to a bank account linked with Aadhaar. The change was proposed with an intent to bring about transparency and ensure that payments are made to the correct accounts and on time.
However, faced with protests and demands from the States due to the slow pace of Aadhaar seeding, the deadline was initially postponed to March 31, and later to June 30. The process, according to MGNREGS State Mission officials, consists of Aadhaar seeding, authentication, matching with bank account and linking to the National Payments Corporation of India.
“We have not detected any duplications or misuse of job cards after Aadhaar seeding of more than 90% of the active workers. The only ones who are removed from the list are those who have passed away or have shifted to other places. When Aadhaar payments are activated, exemptions will have to be given to some places which have network issues. In the beginning, the app also had issues, following which a Central team visited here and made some changes to it. Currently, we are organising an intensive drive to complete Aadhaar seeding of the rest of the workers too,” said a State Mission official.
It is still unclear how the payments will be done to workers who do not yet have an Aadhaar card or are seeded, or whether they will be provided jobs at all. Some of the north-Indian States have seeded only 60%-70% of the MGNREGS workers.
