Only 54% MGNREGA bank accounts in Karnataka seeded with Aadhaar

Only 54 per cent of bank accounts belonging to workers of the rural employment guarantee scheme have been seeded with Aadhaar, leaving a large number of payments that are possibly going to unauthenticated financial addresses.

According to government data, there are 78.91 lakh bank accounts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers in Karnataka. Of this, 42.73 lakh, or 54.15 per cent, are seeded with Aadhaar. For them, wages are credited only to their bank accounts that are linked with Aadhaar, known as the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS).

The remaining 36.17 lakh workers are receiving wages in their bank accounts. But, there is no way of being sure that these bank accounts belong to the workers as they are not seeded with Aadhaar.