August 1, 2016
Special Mention | Vivek Gupta | Demand for waiving off mandatory provision of Adhaar card for getting benefits of government schemes in country
Sir, crores of people are facing immense hardship everyday as the Government has made ADHAAR compulsory for receiving any Government subsidies. Although the Act says that it is not compulsory, and even the Supreme Court, in its order, has instructed not to make ADHAAR mandatory till such time everybody is covered, however, the Central Government is insisting on ADHAAR card.
A sizeable population of poor people in West Bengal don’t have AADHAAR cards, and also, there are no banks or post offices in the rural areas, which make it difficult for them to avail of benefits under the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. In around 800 Panchayats, neither there are banks nor post offices. If there are no banks or post offices, how can one avail of Direct Benefit Transfer?
Most of these affected are the SCs, the STs and the OBCs. The State Government is opposed to making ADHAAR mandatory for labourers as over 40 per cent don’t have it.
Another problem is of people who have been allotted ADHAAR card but have not received the same. In West Bengal alone, over one crore people are yet to receive their ADHAAR cards and are thus being denied benefits of various schemes.
We demand that the mandatory provision for ADHAAR card should be waived off until there is 100 per cent coverage of ADHAAR in the country. I would request the Government to be sensitive to the problems of the people.
