Aadhaar number not ‘must’ for govt schemes
New Delhi: As of now, it is not mandatory to have an Aadhaar number for using monetary benefits under government schemes like Employees Provident Fund, insurance and pension, for booking railway tickets, opening bank accounts, etc.
An official of Unique Identification Authority of India said that, as of now, Aadhaar number has not been made mandatory for any of the schemes of the central government. However, the state governments may link their schemes with Aadhaar number, he added.
No rule has been set to say that Aadhaar is mandatory for schemes such as EPF, but the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has asked its field offices to make maximum efforts to obtain the available Aadhaar numbers or the enrolment numbers of the EPF members.
This shows that the government itself is trying to make Aadhaar mandatory for schemes such as EPF and pension but the scale and time required is coming in the way.
In its letter dated January 21, the EPFO had stated that it is compulsory for new EPF members joining on or after March 1 to submit their Aadhaar numbers. But later, during discussions with the UIDAI, it was revealed that UID is not enrolled in all the states. Therefore the EPFO decided not to make Aadhaar number mandatory and also passed an order stating the same.
Even for booking railway tickets, Aadhar card is only one of the documents required. Also in the case of opening of savings account in banks, Aadhaar will merely work as one of the documents required, and has not been made mandatory yet. Both existing bank customers and new customers can link their accounts with Aadhaar number to avail of subsidies on LPG cylinders directly. This is also not mandatory and is given under options in the Aadhaar application form.
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Aadhaar application form, Aadhaar Card mandatory, Aadhaar number, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, EPFO, Government schemes, UIDAI
Aadhaar is a very good scheme from the Indian government espcially for the poor people from the country. The scheme has been accepted across the country with open hearts and we should apprciate government’s efforts for such type of schemes. The launch of Aadhaar based Direct Cash Transfer scheme is an addition to benefits of the people as it will reduce the corruption involved upto some extent. The genuine beneficiary will get advantages of the welfare programmes from both the state and the central government.