In stance shift, Congress adopts Aadhaar in Madhya Pradesh

NEW DELHI: The Congress had vociferously opposed the Aadhaar legislation brought by the Narendra Modi government as well as linkage of the unique identification number to various schemes, but the Madhya Pradesh government run by the party has reposed its faith in Aadhaar and made linkage to it mandatory for farmers seeking to avail themselves of the recently announced loan waiver.

“The amount will be deposited through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) from the state exchequer into the farmer’s loan account. Hence, to avail the scheme’s benefit, it is mandatory for the farmer to get his bank account seeded (linked) with Aadhaar,” said an order issued by the MP government on January 7, a copy of which was seen by ET. “Those farmers whose bank accounts are not linked with Aadhaar, they will be given one opportunity to do so.”

The loan waiver form issued by the state, with a prominent picture of chief minister Kamal Nath, has a column in which eligible farmers are required to fill in their Aadhaar numbers. About 5.4 million farmers are expected to benefit from the loan waiver.


“Almost all farmers in the state already have an Aadhaar as benefits were given to them through the same in the previous regime under schemes like Bhavantar and PM crop insurance scheme,” a senior Madhya Pradesh government official told ET on condition of anonymity. “We will publish two lists in every gram panchayat from January 15 on – one will be a green list of farmers having Aadhaarlinked accounts and a white list of farmers not having the same.”

“Those farmers whose names are in the white list will have to go to their concerned bank branch to get the Aadhaar seeding done between January 15 and February 5 and submit their forms to the gram panchayat by February 5,” the official said.

State government officials said Aadhaar was the “only possible way” to avoid a scam in the scheme and ensure correct beneficiaries get the waiver.