Mamata Banerjee: Centre deactivating Aadhaar cards in West Bengal

Suri (West Bengal), Feb 18

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that the BJP-led central government has “deactivated” Aadhaar cards of people in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to stop them from availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.

Speaking at a public distribution programme here in Birbhum district, Banerjee said her government would continue with the state-run welfare programmes irrespective of the beneficiaries not having an Aadhaar card.

“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,” she claimed.

“My clear instruction to the Chief Secretary is to ensure that people are not deprived of the benefits even if they do not have active Aadhaar cards. People of Bengal need not be worried. I am there for you,” the CM said.

She alleged that Aadhaar cards of 50 people at Jamalpur in Purba Bardhaman district and several others in Birbhum, North and South 24 Parganas as well as in North Bengal had been “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.

Banerjee also directed the Chief Secretary to launch an online portal where people, “whose Aadhaar cards have been deactivated”, could lodge their complaints.