Minister of State for Rural Development Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, while responding to a question on Tuesday, said sixty lakh new job cards are issued under the MGNREGS on average every year. The Union Minister told the Lok Sabha that the government has no role in the deletion of the job cards which is done based on various parameters.
MGNREGS gets 57 per cent of the rural development budget: Govt
57 per cent of the rural development budget is allocated for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pemmasani said, asserting that Aadhaar-seeding of the cards enhances transparency.
Deletions of job cards linked to Aadhaar-seeding requirement?
Congress leader KC Venugopal raised questions on MGNREGS job cards, claiming the names of 10.43 crore MGNREGS workers have been deleted in the last four years. He also wanted to know whether the deletions were linked to the Aadhaar-seeding requirement.
"Ninety-nine per cent of all job card holders have Aadhaar seeding. Aadhaar seeding is nothing but to increase transparency. It is not an obstacle," the minister said during the Question Hour.
Deletion of job cards is based on THESE five factors
The deletion of job cards is based on five factors, including fake or duplicate cards and a person moving from one panchayat to another, Pemmasani said.
In case of the death of a person or if a person does not want to work under the scheme or if the area where the person works becomes urban from rural, then also cards get deleted, he said.
Pemmasani noted that the deletion of the cards is the responsibility of the state governments and the "central government does not have any role whatsoever in job (card) deletions".
Providing data, the minister said that on average, every year, 60 lakh new job cards are issued.
30 lakh job cards are deleted: Govt
"On average, 30 lakh job cards are deleted due to various reasons. The total number of job cards are around 13-14 crore...total number of active job cards is around 9.2 crore," he added.
(With PTI inputs)
