Social welfare schemes affected by Aadhaar linking

As Indian government made it mandatory for linking of Aadhaar to various social welfare schemes, many citizens are affected. Still many people are not aware of mandatory linking of Aadhaar cards to various social welfare schemes.

Some do not know how to link while other did not get their Aadhaar cards so far. Whatever is the reason, many government schemes are being affected by the Aadhaar linking which eventually impacts the beneficiaries of these schemes.

According to the report of the Times of India, 53,000 persons in Uttarakhand lost their pensions due to non-procurement of Aadhaar card. These include widows, disabled persons and senior citizens. These people have not been getting their pensions since October 2016.

The main reason for people to not acquire their cards is that they are not aware of the necessity of obtaining the Aadhaar cards. Moreover, the Aadhaar centres are located a long distance from their place.

As per the report, 59,081 people are actually drawing the disability pension in Uttarakhand state. Out of them 5,424 people have not been receiving any pension since October 2016. In addition to that, 36,060 people out of the 4.2 lakh old-age pensioners also have not received any amount for the said period. And 12,047 widows out of 1.48 lakh also have not received any money for the period.

Officials state that a Government Notice was issued in June, 2016 specifying that it is mandatory to link Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts of each beneficiary. And Aadhaar details and mobile number of each beneficiary would be linked to the pension software. Those who do not do it would not receive the money.

Even though, the Supreme Court told that it is not mandatory for the linking of Aadhaar details for social welfare schemes, the officials ignored it and followed the government’s notice.

Some officials in Uttrakhand stated that they collected the Aadhaar details of people who are not able to visit the centres by visiting their homes, they are yet to receive the machines.

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