Government of India has directed to all states that Aadhar card is not compulsory for payment of wages for MGNREGA work done under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. MGNREGA is the Government’s largest social sector scheme that guarantees a minimum of 100 a day for 100 days of work. The scheme covers more than 12 crore Indians in rural areas. The Ministry of Rural Development directed the states not to deny the workers job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for non-possession of the bank/post office account numbers or the Aadhaar card number. The Ministry of Rural Development also said that it is the responsibility of the MGNREGA Programme Officer in the States to help the workers to obtain their Aadhaar cards. And the ministry of rural development also said that there is no stoppage of wages due to the Aadhaar card.
The main purpose of the UIDAI and the ministry of rural development to start Aadhaar card in the NREGA to prevent the compilation of false attendance records or payments to the ghost workers or say that paying those workers who are not working in the NREGA but there name registered in the NREGA Scheme and their payment taken by any other person. This all on the worksites will be equipped by the devices for fingerprint capture and authentication and also all the devices, attendance data would be transmitted into the main databases by using the mobile phone internet connection or by the nearest Internet connectivity. It will stop the largest amount of the corruption in the NREGA which come from the false receipts and by the ghost workers.
In the upcoming months the state governments will update the registration data including Aadhaar card number of beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi national Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in exercise to avoid the ghost cards or ghost job cards in the NREGA. The central government also planning to attach the NREGA database to the insurance schemes such as the Rashtriya swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Aam Admi Bima Yojana. The NREGA job card database will include BPL status, RSBY status, backward-class status and Aadhaar card number. It also containing the wages of the NREGA workers also be directly come in the bank accounts by which the workers go to the nearest bank and stand before the cashier who after identifying him from his passbook and give the money. And it is also a assumption that the 83 percent of NREGA job card holders already have bank accounts in the nearest bank.