ABPS payment system has had a bad impact on MNREGA, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh demanded the government to stop it.

New Delhi: Congress's Jairam Ramesh has talked about the irregularities in the payment system of MNREGA. Besides giving detailed information about it, he has also demanded the government to ban it.

The Congress on Saturday claimed that the Aadhaar Based Payment System (ABPS) made mandatory by the government for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) has had a disastrous impact on the scheme and the names of around 85 lakh registered workers have been removed from the programme. are removed.

Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the government should immediately stop the system of ABPS. “In January, 2024, the Ministry of Rural Development mandated the nationwide implementation of Aadhaar Based Payment System (ABPS) for MNREGA,” Ramesh said in a statement.

Jairam Ramesh gave complete analysis

He further explained, “Workers must fulfill several conditions to be eligible for ABPS. For example, their Aadhaar should be linked to their job card, the name on Aadhaar should match the name on the job card and their bank account should be linked to Aadhaar and mapped with National Payments Corporation of India.”

He claimed that now after 10 months, data is available on the devastating impact of this policy change. Ramesh says, “According to an analysis conducted by Lib Tech (a consortium of academics and activists) on public data available on the MNREGA portal, 27.4 per cent of all registered workers (6.7 crore workers) and 4.2 per cent of active workers (54 lakh workers) are ineligible for ABPS.

Information shared on social media

Jairam Ramesh claimed that now after 10 months, data is available on the devastating impact of this policy change.

MGNREGA – the lifeline of crores of India’s poorest communities – is being systematically throttled by the non-biological PM’s Government.

Budget allocations are being cut relentlessly, and wage rates have been stagnant. Now, through an ill-conceived reliance on technology,… pic.twitter.com/hq119FrdjM

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 26, 2024

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“It is a matter of concern that 84.8 lakh workers registered under MNREGA between April and September this year found that their names have been removed from the program.” He said that issues related to ABPS and such removal of names can affect MNREGA as a whole.

Payment is not being made on time

The Congress general secretary claimed that the person days generated in MNREGA (the total number of workdays completed in a financial year by a person registered under the programme) has declined by 16.6 per cent from the previous year.

“ABPS comes in conjunction with the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS),” he alleged. “Both these policies are resulting in violation of the right to work on demand and the right to timely payment of wages guaranteed under MNREGA.”

issues still persist

Ramesh said, “During the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, MNREGA workers from across the country raised these issues in the public hearing held at Ranka in Garhwa district of Jharkhand on 14 February 2024. Even after eight months, these issues persist.”

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He claimed that this is a human, economic and institutional tragedy created by the government. Ramesh said, “The Ministry of Rural Development should immediately stop this insistence of ABPS and NMMS. Also, the budget of MNREGA should be increased and the daily wages of workers should be increased.”

(with agency input)