March 15 new deadline for Aadhaar link with accounts

The scheme launched in January last year is being implemented in 121 districts across the country.

The 252 districts picked are those where Aadhaar enrolment is more than 50 percent. The Ministry of Rural Development has decided to make these 14 states ‘priority states’ for DBT, where payments would be made through Aadhaar-enabled systems under MGNREGA.

The ministry earlier planned to complete Aadhaar enrolment for all beneficiaries by December, but enrolment remained unsatisfactory. In a recent discussion of ministry officials with state representatives, it was observed that issues of enrolment of

Aadhaar numbers and seeding need to be “pursued with states vigorously as the current progress is very slow”.
In an earlier strategy paper, the ministry observed that even where Aadhaar enrolment was more than 90 per cent, “most people left out are wage seekers”.

According to the action plan for the current target, district collectors have to train all block and GP-level officials by January 31 and prepare block-specific plans for Aadhaar seeding and bank account verification. District collectors will have to monitor Aadhaar seeding on a daily basis.

While the scheme was touted as the Congress’ next big ticket reform, it failed to take off in a major way. Low Aadhaar enrollment and seeding with bank accounts have been a point of concern in implementing DBT, as pointed out during several review meetings. A prime objective of making Aadhaar a basis was to eliminate duplication and ghost beneficiaries.