Bengal Assembly passes resolution on Aadhar

The resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee, mentioned that only 15% people of the state had got the Aadhar cards

The West Bengal Assembly today passed a resolution on Aadhar cards, that said the Centre should immediately withdraw its decision to link the cards with direct benefit transfer scheme.

The resolution, moved by parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee, mentioned that only 15 per cent people of the state had got the Aadhar cards.

In such a scenario, 85 per cent of the people would not be able to get nine subsidised LPG cylinders as the Centre had linked the Aadhar card to the direct cash transfer to the respective bank accounts.

The decision of the Centre would put the common people into tremendous hardship, according to the resolution.

Leader of the Opposition and CPI(M) member Surya Kanta Mishra supported the resolution moved by the ruling party, saying a lot of issues relating to Aadhar cards were still unresolved.

Mishra said that the Centre legally cannot make biometric enrolment mandatory and that the entire process was unscientific as there was a scope for margin of error to the extent of 20 per cent.

In the resolution, Chatterjee included Mishra’s line “a lot of unresolved issues still exist with Aadhar cards”, which was greeted by the CPI(M) members. Speaking to newsmen later, Mishra wondered “how the Centre can make Aadhar card mandatory for LPG cash transfer when no law has yet been passed in this regard.”

“The Supreme Court has also made observations against making Aadhar card mandatory for obtaining LPG subsidy by the people,” Mishra said.

He claimed that Aadhar card cash transfer had been introduced by the Centre because the western countries consider subsidy in food and other essentials as faulty.

The Centre should not toe the line of western countries and should reintroduce food subsidy for the poor, he said.