85-90% MGNREGS workers expected to be ADPS eligible by June-end: Officials

The Union rural development ministry is hopeful of covering 88 to 90 per cent of active MGNREGS workers under the mandatory Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) before the month ends, officials said on Friday.

The deadline to make workers registered under the national employment guarantee scheme a part of the payment system ends on June 30.

The ministry has asserted that workers will not be refused work if they do not have an Aadhaar number.

So far, around 74.9 per cent active workers have been marked eligible for the payment system, according to data on the ministry's website.

The rural development ministry has asked states to organise camps and follow-up with beneficiaries to achieve 100 per cent coverage under ABPS. It has also clarified that beneficiaries should be requested to provide their Aadhaar number, but should not be refused work if they do not have one.

 

Data on the ministry's website shows that 1,491,848 workers need to be registered under ABPS every day to meet the deadline of June 30.

However, as several states are behind their target, the website's dashboard that shows daily data updates, flagged them as "lagging". The rate of "enablement" needs to be increased to meet the June 30 deadline, it stated.

Meghalaya has only 3.1 per cent of its active Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers eligible for ABPS. Nagaland has 20.5 per cent worker eligible for the payment system, Assam (34.8 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (54.7 per cent) and Gujarat (56.9 per cent).

Lakshdweep, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh are among the states and Union territories (UTs) that have less than 70 per cent of active MGNREGS workers eligible for ABPS.

Rural development ministry officials said work is in progress, and they expect to cover 88 to 90 per cent of active MGNREGS workers by this month-end, which is also the deadline for having universal payments through ABPS under the flagship rural employment scheme.

Under the MGNREGS, the ABPS has been in use since 2017, the ministry said, adding that after almost universal availability of Aadhaar number to every adult, the government has decided to extend ABPS for beneficiaries under the employment scheme.

States and UTs have been requested to organise camps and follow-up with beneficiaries to achieve 100 per cent ABPS coverage, it said.

The ministry has made it clear to all states that a beneficiary who comes for work should be requested to provide Aadhaar number but will not be refused work on this basis of ABPS eligibility, a rural development ministry official said.

If a beneficiary does not demand work, her or his status about eligibility for ABPS will not affect the demand for work, the official said and added that job cards cannot be deleted on the basis that the worker is not eligible for ABPS.

The official said ABPS is the best route for making wage payment through Direct Benefit Transfer and will help beneficiaries in getting their payment on time.

Out of the total 14.28 crore active beneficiaries, Aadhaar has been seeded for 13.75 crore. Against these seeded Aadhaar, a total 12.17 crore Aadhaar have been authenticated and 77.81 percent are now already eligible for ABPS, the ministry said.

In May, about 88 per cent of wage payment has been made through ABPS, it said.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is a flagship scheme aimed at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

The central government has decided to make ABPS compulsory for settling wages under the scheme from July 1.

At present, a mix model of wage payment is being used under which payments are being made through ABPS, if a beneficiary is ABPS enabled, and through National Automated Clearing House (NACH) method for others who are not enabled for ABPS. The programme officer can choose NACH as the mode for making wage payment.