Andhra government to link Aadhaar with farm loan waiver
TNN | Jul 12, 2014, 12.50AM IST
The Andhra Pradesh government has directed all district collectors to complete the Aadhaar enrolment for farmers and women self-help group members at the earliest in view of the loan waiver exercise.
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has directed all district collectors to complete the Aadhaar enrolment for farmers and women self-help group members at the earliest in view of the loan waiver exercise.
According to sources, the government wants to utilise the Aadhaar number to trim the waiver scheme following reports that farmers have secured multiple loans from different banks.
In fact, agriculture minister Prattipati Pulla Rao had, in his first media interaction, said that the government would make the Aadhaar card mandatory for getting the loan waiver.
However, he backtracked later following strong opposition from political parties and farmers. Ironically, the state government has again decided to go ahead with making Aadhaar mandatory in clear contravention of the Supreme Court, which had made asked the Centre last September not to insist on Aadhaar cards for government schemes.
Nellore joint collector G Rekha Rani directed all field officers to finish the enrolment process, asserting that no benefit under government programmes would be extended to people without an Aadhaar number.
"Aadhaar is mandatory for farmers, women SHG group members and even for those taking essential commodities at subsidized prices," she said.
In a related development, Kavali revenue divisional officer KV Ramana Reddy said his department will complete the linking of Aadhaar numbers with bank loan takers within 10 days.
"We have identified about 41,000 farmer loan accounts with the banks in the Kavali division. We will link all the accounts with Aadhaar within 10 days as we are conducting a special drive to generate the Aadhaar number for those who do not have it," he said.
Similarly, Krishna district civil supplies department warned white cardholders that ration coupons would not be supplied without an Aadhaar number.