Around 27 per cent of total MGNREGS workers still ineligible for ABPS: Report

AROUND 27 per cent of the all MGNREGA workers and 1.5 percent among active workers are still ineligible for the Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS), a new report said, as it also dismissed the government's claim that it is more efficient than the bank account-based payment system.

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In a report released earlier this week, Libtech India, a consortium of academics and activists, also recommended that MGNREGA funds be urgently restored in West Bengal which the Union government has stalled for more than three years.

ABPS, a mechanism to electronically transfer wages and subsidies to an Aadhaar-linked bank account which is mapped with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) mapper, was made mandatory under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in January 2024.

The BJP-led government at the Centre and the TMC government in West Bengal have repeatedly tussled over the issue.

The central government has said ABPS was introduced to ensure timely payment of wages to the beneficiaries under MGNREGA and has claimed that there were irregularities in utilisation of funds released before March 2022.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha during the recent Budget Session, Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan said ABPS addresses the issues arising due to frequent changes in bank account numbers of the beneficiaries.

The Rural Development Ministry has said release of funds under MGNREGA has been stopped since March 9, 2022 as per provision of Section 27 of MNREGA law "due to non-compliance of directives of central government”.