Villagers in Garo Hills have complained that they are being denied work under MGNREGA and other government benefits because they do not have Aadhaar cards.
The complaint was made to the Deputy Commissioner of South Garo Hills regarding the Block Development Officer of Gasuapara. The villagers are residents of Darit-Betegre and were represented in their complaint by social activist Greneth M Sangma, who has repeatedly complained about instances of people being compelled to have Aadhaar cards.
Sangma referred in his complaint to old Supreme Court directives that may or may not be relevant to this particular case. He also cited Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act that states that anyone who has yet to be assigned an Aadhaar number cannot be denied government entitlements. However, that particular section seems to apply to those who have applied for but have yet to receive an Aadhaar number and not to those people who choose not to register for Aadhaar.
In information provided to Parliament earlier this year, it was stated that 99.49 percent of the 13.55 crore workers registered under MGNREGA have seeded their Aadhaar number with their job cards. The central government is using Aadhaar number seeding to ensure that workers receive the payments owed to them through direct benefit transfer (DBT) straight to their bank account in order to reduce leakage and delays.
