UP plans to link welfare schemes with Aadhaar
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to disburse funds for scholarships and all social welfare schemes only after Aadhaar validation to ensure that the funds reach the deserving beneficiaries.
“Yes, we propose to link all social welfare schemes with Aadhaar now. In order to check misuse, disbursement of scholarships, old age pension, widow pension and other social welfare schemes will be made through Aadhaar validation as far as possible,” said a senior officer.
Besides having 35 million ration card holders, the state government has nearly 4.5 million beneficiaries of old age pension and 2.4 million beneficiaries of widow pension schemes.
“We will install e-POS machines for verification purpose and the cost to install them will be worked out before the government goes ahead with the plan,” said the officer.
Although most of the government schemes have Aadhaar linked to them, the state government has not made Aadhaar-link validation mandatory.
Although misuse of bank accounts for getting benefits have come down to some extent there are apprehensions that in disbursement of funds to bank
accounts there is a possibility of the same beneficiary using two different accounts for the same scheme to commit fraud.
Meanwhile, there are also reports that the state government is contemplating to link properties in urban areas with Aadhaar card of owners. For this purpose the Urban Properties Ownership Record scheme is being worked out and the proposal may be initially implemented in major towns.
A senior officer, however, said the government may have to study legal implications of implementing the scheme. “The Supreme Court has made certain observations on linking Aadhaar that is now not needed for operating a bank account or getting SIM for mobile. Will linking properties with Aadhaar stand judicial scrutiny?
“The state government will consider all these issues before going ahead with any such move,” said the officer.
A SENIOR OFFICER, HOWEVER, SAID THE GOVERNMENT MAY HAVE TO STUDY LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTING THE SCHEME