TURA:
Tura BJP MDC, Bernard N Marak on Sunday dispelled the wrong narrative against Aadhaar.
In a statement, Marak said, “Aadhaar is not 666 nor is it Satan’s number (Antichrist). It is a unique identification number just like mobile number, EPIC and roll number which maintains an individual’s identity.”
“It (Aadhaar) is a system which maintains transparency and justifies irregularities in the governance in providing the best to the people. It has nothing to do with faith and salvation,” he said while urging that beneficiaries should link their accounts to Aadhaar cards to enable Aadhaar-based payments. Online payments are not going through as many are yet to link their accounts to Aadhaar.
He said Aadhaar-based payments will eliminate middlemen and corrupt practices of paying insufficient amounts to the beneficiaries which has been the practice in the past.
Central schemes like NREGA, PMAY, pensions, NRLM etc including scholarships of the students are paid online and this has been done transparently.
“However, on my visits to the blocks, I was informed that the banks in many areas are yet to link Aadhaar to the beneficiary’s accounts as Aadhaar-based payments have failed miserably in some blocks. In some areas, it was reported that the copies of the Aadhaar submitted in the banks were burnt instead of linking them to the accounts,” he said adding “Beneficiaries are claiming similar incidents in many areas which should not have been the case. Poor beneficiaries who submitted copies of their Aadhaar card to the banks believed that their accounts are linked but Aadhaar linking in the banks stands to less than 50 per cent in many areas.”
Stating that banks should initiate the linking process, he said, that beneficiaries who are not getting paid their dues and those who are receiving messages in their mobiles should check their accounts in their banks and insist the banks link their Aadhaar to their accounts.”
In addition to this, beneficiaries should submit their KYC and ensure that their accounts are not tiny. Those accounts should be upgraded to normal accounts, he said while advising the beneficiaries to open alternative accounts in post offices with their Aadhaar card in case the banks do not cooperate.