Odisha withdraws decision to link monthly pension with Aadhaar

nBHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Friday withdrew its earlier decision of making Aadhaar verification mandatory for people were availing monthly social security pension from August.

The Aadhar verification or Aadhar seeding of the database of beneficiaries of social security schemes such as National Social Assistance Programme and state’s Madhu Babu Pension Yojana done through the online mode had managed to seed around 82% NSAP and 75% MBPY beneficiaries.

The process left around 1.1 million beneficiaries in the lurch drawing protests from food rights activists, after which the state government withdraw its order making Aadhaar mandatory for withdrawal of pensions.

However, Odisha has been successful when it comes to providing services online.

State government officials said by mid-september, Odisha would start a web portal to help citizens access government services like land mutation, payment of electricity dues, admission in colleges or payment of holding tax as well as pension. The portal, named Odishaone, would be an integrated portal where citizens can access online services of various departments instead of visiting different departments.

“Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had made it clear to all officials that no one needs go to a government office unless mandated by law...the Odishaone portal would be a one stop platform for citizens to access all government services. All e-governance applications are being linked with the Odisha One portal and once it is rolled out, people can access it. It would be single unified resource portal for citizens,” said state information technology secretary Manoj Mishra.

However, activists said going aggressive on e-governance was not a substitute for better governance. “In a state where teledensity is poor, having a unified portal to provide online services may not be the answer...,” said activist Sameet Panda.