Jeypore: Though the government has pushed mandatory linking of Aadhaar to government welfare schemes to March next year, a large number of job card holders in Koraput district have been left out of it, a report here said.
Of the 2,59,060 job card holders in the district, 50,809 don’t have Aadhaar cards. On the other hand, more than half of the job card holders don’t work in any of the projects as many have migrated to other states after failing to get sufficient earning opportunities while others have died, it was learnt.
Meanwhile, the administration is tracing the persons who have managed to get job cards by fraudulent means.
Linking of Aadhaar with the job card was aimed at maintaining transparency and checking irregularities but it failed to serve the purpose as so many people didn’t have their Aadhaar registration number, some of the beneficiaries said. The Centre had launched the MGNREGS in 2005. Koraput district administration set a target to provide minimum of 100 days’ work to 2,93,171 families by mid-May of 2017. However, only 1,788 families had got 100 days’ work during 2016-17 fiscal, according to department sources.
When asked about the poor rate of Aadhaar linking, additional project director District Rural Development Agency Maheswar Nayak said measures are being taken to facilitate Aadhaar cards to MGNREGS beneficiaries who have been left out. Linking of Aadhaar cards would bring in transparency in the scheme, Nayak claimed. PNN
