Odisha Govt To Link Aadhaar With All Welfare Schemes

Bhubaneswar: To streamline delivery mechanism of its welfare schemes and ensure transparency, the Odisha government is planning to make Aadhaar mandatory to avail them.

Special Secretary, Finance, P K Biswal has written to Additional Chief Secretary and secretaries of all departments, asking them use Aadhaar authentication for beneficiaries under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, in schemes which are partly or fully funded by the Consolidated Fund of the State.

A notification will be issued to link the Aadhaar numbers after a detailed report of various welfare schemes in which money is directly transferred to the account of beneficiaries is prepared, official sources said.

Of the 44 schemes being implemented by the state government, money is being directly transferred to the accounts of beneficiaries in only 10.

This move is expected to weed out bogus beneficiaries.

Notably, the Centre had earlier written to the State for linking Aadhaar in social security schemes. Around 19 lakh fake beneficiaries were detected in Odisha soon after Aadhaar linking in food security scheme.