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One-Month Purge of 27 Lakh MGNREGA Names Triggers Political Clash Over Aadhaar e-KYC

The spike coincides with a mandatory e-KYC rollout that activists say risks excluding genuine workers.

Overview

  • Lib Tech reports about 27 lakh deletions versus 10.5 lakh additions between October 10 and November 14, including roughly 6 lakh active workers, calling the volume highly unusual.
  • The surge overlaps with e-KYC becoming mandatory on November 1, which matches workers’ NMMS photos to Aadhaar, and net additions fell by about 17 lakh within a month.
  • States with high e-KYC completion saw large deletions, led by Andhra Pradesh (15,92,903), Tamil Nadu (30,529) and Chhattisgarh (1,04,310).
  • The Rural Development Ministry denies any link to e-KYC, describing deletions as routine verification under SOPs with five-year job card renewals, public disclosure and appeal windows.
  • Congress accuses the government of throttling MGNREGA and demands halting ABPS, NMMS and e-KYC and raising the daily wage to Rs 400.