SHILLONG, July 23: The Meghalaya government has advised people to link their Aadhaar if they want to avail of the benefits of central schemes, pointing out that Centre has made Aadhaar linkage compulsory for almost all its programmes.
Citing an example, C&RD Minister Abu Taher Mondal said Centre now releases money to MGNREGA beneficiaries through an Aadhaar-based system.
“We have been instructed by the Ministry of Rural Development that if even a single person’s Aadhaar is not linked in a village with 100 job card holders, the entire village will be denied the benefits,” Mondal said.
As a temporary measure, he said the state government has asked the BDOs to look into the matter.
Stressing that people should be made aware of the importance of Aadhaar linkage, the Minister said it is important to avail of the benefits of central schemes. He pointed out that ration card holders are now required to link their Aadhaar.
Recently, the High Court of Meghalaya had observed that Aadhaar card cannot be considered the sole document for identification purpose for accessing government benefits, and issued an interim order directing the administration to accept alternative IDs from individuals who are unable or unwilling to produce Aadhaar number.
The court had stated that if an individual is unable to produce the Aadhaar number or card or is unwilling to obtain Aadhaar registration, then he would have to prove his identity as a resident through other recognised documents such as pan card, voter card, passport etc to the satisfaction of state authorities.
Replying to a query, Mondal said the state government never made Aadhaar linkage mandatory for people to avail of the benefits of state schemes but Centre has made it mandatory to avail of the benefits of its schemes.
Asked if the state should be given some exemption, he said it got exemption for a few years.
