Uttarakhand: Linking MNREGA with Aadhaar is wrong, a ‘cruel New Year gift’ for the poor and marginalized people of the country- Yashpal Arya

Uttarakhand’s Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya has condemned the linking of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) with Aadhaar from January 1. It has been described as a ‘cruel New Year gift’ for the poor and marginalized people of the country.

Arya said that the government has taken away the rights of crores of poor people who get basic income by working under MNREGA. It will be very difficult for workers to understand and meet the payment system requirements under this complex, cumbersome and unreliable system. Under the Aadhaar-based payment system, the Aadhaar cards of salaried workers need to be linked to their job cards and bank accounts, after which their Aadhaar details will be mapped with the database of the National Payments Corporation of India. The bank’s Institutional Identification Number will then be mapped to the National Payments Corporation of India database.

Arya said that there are a total of 25.69 crore MNREGA workers in the country. Of these, 14.33 workers are considered active. As of December 27, 2023, 34.8 per cent of total registered workers (8.9 crore) and 12.7 per cent of active workers (1.8 crore) are still not able to get paid through ABPS. Workers, practitioners and researchers have highlighted the challenges of using ABPS for wage payment under MGNREGA, yet the Modi government has continued its disastrous experiment with the technology.

The Leader of Opposition said that the government’s indifference towards MNREGA has been exposed many times. Their dangerous experimentation with technologies like digital attendance (NMMS), ABPS, drone surveillance and facial recognition in the proposed NMMS shows their same indifference.

Yashpal Arya said that despite being an important scheme for rural economy, the budget of this scheme has been cut in recent years. Rs 60,000 crore was allocated for MNREGA in the 2023 budget, which was a 33 per cent decline in the allocation for MNREGA compared to the revised estimate for 2022-23.

The Leader of Opposition said the government should stop weaponizing technology, especially Aadhaar, to deprive the most vulnerable Indians of their social welfare benefits, release pending salary payments and open muster rolls to improve transparency. And social audit should be implemented.