Mamata Banerjee wants Centre not to make Aadhaar mandatory for MNREGA

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will write to the Centre asking it not to make Aadhaar cards mandatory for those working under the MNREGA scheme. [caption id=“attachment_2802008” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. File photo. PTI[/caption] Official sources said the state government was opposed to making Aadhaar must for labourers as it was estimated that only about 70 percent of them possessed Aadhaar cards. They said the Chief Minister would soon write to the central government requesting it not to make Aadhaar card compulsory till its registration was 100 per cent complete. The Trinamool Congress government also said that it wanted a discussion in Parliament and Assembly on how to conduct elections without affecting the work of the government. “The term of a government is five years but in effect it is four-and-a-half years. Even during that time we have Parliament elections, bypolls, panchayat and municipal polls. And when there is election in other states, they take officials from here. This affects work,” the sources said. The sources said the state had shown the way to other states by direct transfer of money to beneficiaries in their bank accounts for its schemes like Kanyashree, Yubashree, etc. “The credit goes to the state and not the Centre,” they added.