UID project hits job plan roadblock

Nandan Nilekani lead the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has hit a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) roadblock.

Updated on: Oct 18, 2011, 01:17:03 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Nandan Nilekani lead the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has hit a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) roadblock.

The government had refused to make unique number or Aadhaar mandatory for making wage payment to people enrolled under the world’s largest social security scheme unless all residents are covered.

The reason given was that MGNREGA is a universal scheme and anyone can demand work. Unless all resident in a district have an Aadhaar number, accepting UIDAI’s request will be in violation of the job guarantee law.

“Only when Aadhaar becomes universal the UIDAI request can be accepted,” a plan panel member said, while adding that there was still a long way for UIDAI to achieve the goal.

The UIDAI wanted the government to declare Aadhaar must for issuing the job cards to foster enrolment of people for the unique identity number scheme. But, the rural development ministry found that very few Aadhaar numbers have been issued to those enrolled in MGNREGA even in state such as Jharkhand, where it was launched first.

Nilekani had recently told reporters that Aadhaar number will be linked for MGNREGA bank accounts for electronic transfer of wages. It was the next step UIDAI was looking at after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) declared Aadhaar as enough for one to open a bank account.

UIDAI chairperson Nilekani had recently met Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh and plan panel member Mihir Shah to explore the possibility of linking Aadhaar with MGNREGA bank accounts.

Once that happens, Nilekani had proposed the MGNREGA workers will get the facility of withdrawing the money at their doorsteps through banking correspondent model. A person having a small hand-held machine linked with the banks server through mobile based internet service is called banking correspondent.

The plan panel was also skeptical on the banking correspondent model as it has been employed in small pilots but not vigorously tested in the tough rural landscape, where mobile connectivity is still a problem.

“A lot of issues would have to be sorted out before UIDAI is made mandatory for MGNREHA bank accounts,” the member said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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