Come September, Aadhaar card mandatory for salary & pension

After a lull of seven months the finance department is once again pushing for Aadhaar number and making it mandatory for drawing pension and salary from treasury. The department issued similar deadline last year as well.

In a press-note dated May 30, the department has asked all Government employees to enroll under Unique Identification Number (UID) by August 31.

The Finance department is contemplating on making UID enrollment mandatory for Government officials from September 1. However, the step has been taken to make Government employees acknowledge the importance of Aadhaar number.

“We are trying to put pressure on Government employees so that they enroll themselves for obtaining Aadhaar number,” said a source in Finance department.“We will assess the situation and will try to gauge employees’ reaction to the directive. Depending on the reaction we may extend the deadline,” said a senior IAS officer.

The huge number of constabulary, teachers and employees of such departments is seen as an impediment to any time bound action on Aadhar led provisions and other schemes. “They are the most vocal of all employees, so we are keeping our options open,” said he.The Finance department asked the concerned departments of corporate bodies like JSEB, RMC, et al to ensure that these bodies act on the UID enrollment by August. 

In the previous year, Government’s effort to link salary & pension with Aadhar number had fallen flat due to lower than expected penetration of Aadhaar among the State Government employees. 

Poor foot-fall at UID centres set up by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had even led to closure of many centres before the deadline.