NREGS caught in tug-of-war between two ministries

Despite the Centre's decison, many states are going ahead with plans to use the health insurance smart card to make the scheme paper less

The rural development ministry today said that the labour ministry's decision yesterday to let NREGS ride on the smart cards of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) had been overruled by the central government, at least for national level implementation.

"Smart cards issued under RSBY are not in sync with Aadhaar and thus, they are ruled out at least till the time RSBY and Aadhaar are linked," sources in the ministry told Business Standard.

"When new RSBY cards are issued on renewal, probably these could be linked to Aadhaar and then, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) can ride on those cards. Till such date, the Centre would not go for a nation-wide use of the smart card for NREGS," the sources added.

"The Centre disapproves of keeping any scheme out of the purview of Aadhaar. RSBY pre-dates Aadhaar and this comes in the way of other schemes riding on the RSBY platform," the sources said.

On Monday, Labour Welfare Commissioner Anil Swarup had announced at an editors' conference here that the labour ministry had held talks with the rural development ministry and it had been decided to let NREGS ride on the smart cards of RSBY.

Swarup had enumerated the advantages of such a move. "Once NREGS uses the smart cards, they would replace the job cards and even the muster rolls. Since the cards can locate the geographic location of the user, it would also mark the presence of a worker on a work site. Hence, muster rolls or attendance registers would go and the card would suffice. Also, since the card is portable, the worker can even explore work in other sites away from his village," Swarup had said.

When asked about today's announcement by the rural development ministry, Swarup told Business Standard that he was not aware of developments leading to the Centre's decision against using the smart cards for NREGS.

Despite the central government's decision, many states are going ahead with plans to use the health insurance smart card to make the rural employment guarantee scheme paper less. These are Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Kerala . Chhattisgarh is already using RSBY cards as a substitute for ration cards in the public distribution system, while Congress-ruled Kerala was till recently holding consultations to use the smart cards for its ration scheme.

RSBY smart cards are issued to beneficiaries of the health insurance scheme on payment of an annual premium of Rs 30. It requires only the thumb impression and the photograph of each member of a household. The card is linked to the insurance company that issues it and through it, to various hospitals which are empanelled under the scheme throughout the country.

A swipe of the card in a hospital enables the beneficiary to get cash-less, hospitalised care worth Rs 30,000 per year for his entire family.

He can take the care across the country and get treated in empanelled hospitals anywhere.

However, since RSBY cards were issued in 2008, they are not linked to the Aadhaar data base in any way.