Ruhi Tewari : New Delhi, Mon Sep 30 2013, 01:20 hrs
The plan of the Ministry of Rural Development to move to an entirely Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) for all wage payments in its rural employment guarantee scheme and NSAP pensions under the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) has suffered a setback following the recent Supreme Court order restricting authorities from denying a benefit or service to any citizen of India for not having an Aadhaar card. It is also feared that the Aadhaar enrolment target may be missed.
A strategy paper on Aadhaar and DBT prepared by the ministry said it will move to an Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) for all wage payments in MGNREGS and NSAP pensions and this "mandates that every beneficiary must have an Aadhaar number", besides an electronic bank or postal account and that all payments must be electronic payments.
After Monday's Supreme Court order, ministry will find it difficult to push ahead with its Aadhaar enrolment target with the same drive and may face stiff resistance from some states.
According to ministry officials who did not wish to be identified, the matter was discussed during a Performance Review Committee meeting of MGNREGA on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was attended by representatives of all states, where the ministry indicated it would still insist on speeding up Aadhaar enrolment and completing the process by December. However, some states objected saying Aadhaar was neither "mandatory" nor "practical" with the given timeline.
The DBT scheme aimed at eliminating middlemen and ensuring money reaches beneficiaries directly in Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts. The scheme is being implemented in 121 districts. In its strategy paper, the ministry observed that even where Aadhaar enrollment is more than 90 percent, "most of the people left out are wage seekers".
To meet target Aadhaar enumeration, the ministry said all Rural Development departments be registered as registrars under UID, and private service providers enlisted for each district. The enrolment teams would visit each village to enroll all MGNREGS and NSAP beneficiaries and leave only "after enrolling every person in the list."
According to the ministry, so far, it has Aadhaar numbers for only about 32.48 lakh (out of 16 crore) active accounts. It has emphasised that disbursements are made at Gram Panchayat level "after biometric authentication".