Aadhaar now must for army pensions, free cooking gas

NEWDELHI: The Union government has made the 12- digit Unique Identification( U ID) number must for poor women to get cooking gas connections and defence pensioners to receive their payments, in notifications released this week.

The move is expected to draw criticism from activists who say the enrollment to the A ad ha ar programme should not be a condition to receive state benefits.

Women below the poverty line (BPL) will need to present their Aadhaar cards if they want free cooking gas (LPG) connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a gazette notification said.

“... The use of Aadhaar as identity document for delivery of services or benefits or subsidies simplifies the government delivery processes, brings in transparency and efficiency,” said the government notification.

In a similar notification published in the gazette on March 6, the government said Aadhaar will be mandatory for all retired defence personnel and family members of deceased ex-servicemen to receive pensions . The BPL women have time till May 31 and military pensioners have time till June 30 to enroll using the UID.

Sources in the oil ministry, the nodal authority for PMUY, said that oil marketing companies will facilitate the process of Aadhaar application for BPL families.

This move comes after the government mandated Aadhaar last year for claiming subsidy on LPG cylinders.

There are nearly 30 lakh defence pensioners in the country with the total pension budget amounting to Rs 80,000 crore after the implementation of the one rank-one pension (OROP).