Telangana removes 3.45 lakh NREGS workers in 19 months
HYDERABAD: Telangana removed 67,070 job cards and 3,45,445 workers from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) over the past 19 months. During the Aadhaar-based payment system rollout in 2022–23, the state deleted 5.1 lakh job cards. Officials have not restored these cards, and removals have continued through 2025–26.
Sharp drop in work availability
Across 32 districts, the state has 52,42,794 registered job cards and 1.01 crore registered workers. But between April and November 12, only 20.11 lakh job cards and 30.33 lakh workers received any work. This indicates that nearly 22 lakh job-card holders and 69–70 lakh workers did not get employment.
More than 53 lakh workers have still not completed Aadhaar-based e-KYC, delaying or blocking wage payments.
Technical failures hit attendance and wages
Workers said that Aadhaar-based payments and the mandatory mobile-based attendance system have caused widespread disruption. Officials began using the National Mobile Monitoring System app for real-time, geo-tagged attendance at worksites. However, poor connectivity, technical errors, and e-KYC failures have made attendance unreliable.
In several locations, workers reportedly continued working without pay as supervisors could not record their attendance. Linking Aadhaar with bank accounts and job cards has added another layer of difficulty. Aadhaar details must also match the National Payments Corporation of India mapper; workers say the multi-step process frequently fails, leaving no clear mechanism for resolution.
Workdays fall sharply
Between April and September, total NREGS workdays in Telangana fell by 47.6% compared with last year. Nationally, the decline during the same period was only 10.4%. Average household workdays in Telangana dropped from 41 to 27.
‘Violation of workers’ rights’
“Technical changes in NREGS are directly violating workers’ rights. Instead of expanding the programme, the government is restricting it in the name of technology,” said Chakradhar Buddha, director of LibTech India. He said the state should hold a special discussion in the assembly and pass a unanimous resolution asking the Centre to withdraw the new systems.
Officials outline steps for workers
Officials advised workers with pending e-KYC to seek help at gram panchayat offices or Aadhaar service centres for biometric verification. Those with registered mobile numbers can use the Aadhaar app for paperless offline e-KYC.
For geo-fencing failures at worksites, officials asked workers to immediately inform supervisors and ensure attendance is marked as close as possible to the required location.
‘State cannot delete job cards’
“The government has no authority to delete job cards. Doing so without notice or village-assembly approval is illegal,” said P Shankar, national secretary of the Dalit Bahujan Front. He said the government has not been providing work for the past three months, violating the basic guarantee that work must be provided when demanded.
He added that while the Centre is weakening the scheme, the state should at least respond by increasing workdays by 50 for persons with disabilities and single women, as done in Odisha.
