Over 11.3 mn MGNREGA workers' bank accounts yet to be seeded with Aadhaar

Giriraj Singh said that bank accounts of 1,13,86,599 workers, or 8.93% of the total active workers, are yet to be seeded with their Aadhaar numbers

Bank accounts of around 1.13 crore workers under the rural job scheme MGNREGA are yet to be seeded with their Aadhaar numbers, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the minister said wage payment to beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) may be made either using Aadhaar-based payment bridge systems or national automated clearing house depending upon the status of a beneficiary in the Aadhaar-based systems.

He said that bank accounts of 1,13,86,599 workers, or 8.93 per cent of the total active workers, are yet to be seeded with their Aadhaar numbers.

The minister said northeastern states are lagging behind in the process, with accounts of more than 42 per cent workers in Assam, around 23 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh, over 70 per cent in Meghalaya, and 37 per cent in Nagaland not being seeded with Aadhaar numbers.

To a question on "whether it is also a fact that any duplications or misuse of job cards have not been detected after Aadhaar seeding of more than 90 per cent of the active workers", the minister said almost 33.23 lakh job cards have been deleted due to different reasons such as being fake or incorrect job card, duplicate job card, individual not willing to work, family shifted from gram panchayat permanently and the card holder expiring.