Jairam Ramesh slams PM Modi's Aadhaar move, claim millions face MGNREGA payment exclusion

In a scathing statement issued on New Year's Day, the Indian National Congress (INC) slammed the Modi government's latest move to mandate payments for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers via the Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS). Congress leader Jairam Ramesh denounced this as a cruel act that will exclude millions of the poorest and marginalized Indians from earning a basic income.

The Ministry of Rural Development's (MoRD) fifth extension of the deadline for ABPS implementation concluded on December 31, 2023. Shockingly, as of December 27, 34.8% of total registered workers (8.9 crore) and 12.7% of active workers (1.8 crore) remain ineligible for ABPS, putting their MGNREGA benefits at risk.

INC raised concerns over the Modi government's questionable claims, particularly asserting that job cards won't be deleted based on ABPS eligibility. Contrary to these assurances, a staggering 7.6 crore registered workers were deleted from the system since April 2022. Ground verification revealed wrongful deletions due to the hasty implementation of Aadhaar authentication and ABPS.

The MoRD's claims of stakeholder consultations supporting ABPS and increased payment efficiency were also challenged by INC. The party demanded clarification on who these stakeholders were and when the consultations occurred, highlighting the government's disregard for concerns raised by various delegations.

A working paper by LibTech India debunked the MoRD's claims, showing no statistically significant difference in processing time or rejection rates between ABPS and account-based payments for MGNREGA wages. The INC criticized the government's use of technology, including digital attendance, drone monitoring, and proposed facial recognition integration, as experiments designed to exclude vulnerable Indians without proper consultation or piloting.

Reiterating its demands from August 30, 2023, the INC called on the Modi government to cease weaponizing technology, especially Aadhaar, release delayed wage payments, and implement open muster rolls and social audits to enhance transparency in MGNREGA operations.