Exemption from ABPS for MGNREGA payments on a case-to-case basis: Govt

New Delhi: As Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) became mandatory for MGNREGA wage payments from Monday, Rural Development Ministry said if certain gram panchayats have "technical issues", the government may consider them for an exemption.

"The Government of India has decided to make the wage payment of unskilled workers through ABPS to ensure the payment of beneficiaries into their bank accounts, even in case of frequent change of bank account by the beneficiary. In case, if any Gram Panchayat is having either technical problem or Aadhaar-related problem, the government may consider exemption from ABPS on a case-to-case basis till the resolution of the issue," the ministry said in a statement.

The development comes on a day when Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the Modi government of "weaponising technology", especially Aadhaar, to deny the most vulnerable Indians their social welfare benefits.

The Rural Development Ministry said the real time attendance of the beneficiaries working at a worksite is being captured with the help of National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app, and beneficiaries as well as any citizen can check the "genuineness of the workers".

"Similarly, geotagging of assets using remote sensing technology is ensuring the availability of assets for public scrutiny. National Electronic Fund Management System was started in FY 2016-17 to provide wage payment directly into the account of beneficiaries. Currently, more than 99 per cent wage payment is being made directly into the bank/post office accounts of beneficiaries. Such best practices are new for the implementation of the scheme," the ministry said.

It also said specific pilot study as well as consultation has been done before the launch of NMMS.

While stating that Aadhaar seeding of beneficiaries is a "continuous process and is done as a de-duplication exercise to authenticate the genuine beneficiaries", the ministry said out of the total 14.32 crore active workers, Aadhaar seeding of 14.08 crore (98.31 per cent) active workers have already been completed.

Against these seeded Aadhaar, a total 13.76 crore Aadhaar cards have been authenticated and 87.52 per cent active workers are now eligible for ABPS.

The ministry also said while total registered job cards are 14.32 crore, just 9.77 crore (68.22 per cent) are active job cards. "There is a total of 25.25 crore workers, out of which just 14.32 crore (56.83 percent) are active workers." The ministry said the claims that around 34.8 per cent of total registered workers and 12.7 per cent of active workers are still ineligible for ABPS "have no relevance, because ABPS is applicable only in case a registered beneficiary turns up for wage employment".

The government also denied that job cards may get deleted due to Aadhaar linking.

"Job card of household can be deleted only in certain specific conditions, but not due to ABPS. Updation/deletion of job cards is a regular exercise conducted by the States/UTs... From April, 2022 to till date, about 2.85 crore job cards have been deleted by following the due process by the States," the statement said.

MGNREGS' job cards entailing over 5.48 crore workers have been deleted in 2022-23, a jump of 267 per cent compared to last year, Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti had informed the Lok Sabha during the recently concluded Winter session of Parliament.

The Rural Development Ministry added that NPCI data shows that there is higher success percentage to the extent of 99.55 per cent or above where the Aadhaar is enabled for DBT. In case of account-based payment, such success is about 98 per cent.

Wage payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will now be done only through the ABPS now after last extension of the deadline to state governments to make the payments mandatory through the system ended on December 31.