Modi govt deactivated Aadhaars of Bengal people: Mamata
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West Bengal: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday that the Modi government in the Centre deactivated the Aadhaar cards of the people of her state. She alleged that the Centre did so to stop availing them of the benefits of social welfare schemes given the Lok Sabha polls, PTI reported.
She told a gathering that her government would deliver the state-run welfare programmes to all, whether they had Aadhars or not. She was speaking at a public distribution programme in Birbhum.
Mamata said, "Be careful, they (BJP-led Centre) are deactivating Aadhaar cards. Several Aadhaar cards have been made inactive in many districts of Bengal. They are doing this so that people do not get benefits of schemes like 'Lakshmi Bhandar' through bank transfer and free ration before the polls."
"My clear instruction to the chief secretary is to ensure people are not deprived of the benefits even if they do not have active Aadhaar cards. The people of Bengal need not be worried. I am there for you," she said.
She said that around 50 people belonging to Jamalpur in Purba Bardhaman district and many others in the areas of Birbhum, North and South 24 Parganas, and North Bengal got their Aadhaar "delinked".
"If I get to know that they (BJP-led Centre) have a hidden agenda behind deactivating Aadhaar cards, I will not allow a single scheme to be linked with those documents," she said.
"First, the Union government asked people to obtain Aadhaar cards, even for admission to schools. And now, it is deactivating them without informing you... How many such cards do people need? What will they do with so many of these?" the Chief Minister asked.
The CM directed the chief secretary to start a portal so that people who had their Aadhaar cards deactivated could lodge complaints. She added that if banks are not allowing transactions without Aadhaar cards, cooperative banks could be an alternative.
