New Delhi: Official data has shown the removal of over 16.3 lakh workers from MGNREGA job rolls shortly before Parliament passed a new rural employment law. The deletions took place over 36 days between October 10 and November 14, around a month before the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin Bill, 2025, reached the Lok Sabha.
The data came from a written reply by Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan to questions raised by Samajwadi Party MPs Lalji Verma and Anand Bhadauriya. The minister described job card deletion as a routine process handled by state governments. He listed fake or duplicate cards, permanent migration, deaths, and urban reclassification of panchayats as reasons for removals. He denied any link with digital verification steps such as Aadhaar based e KYC.
Rural workers and opposition leaders have expressed concern. They linked the timing of deletions with stricter Aadhaar based e KYC rules introduced earlier this year. They also pointed to estimates suggesting close to 27 lakh deletions during the same period. These claims have deepened fears of exclusion from a law meant to guarantee work to rural households.
Paswan stated that over 56 percent of active workers completed e KYC by November. He added that nearly 99.7 percent of active records had Aadhaar seeding.
MGNREGA, launched in 2005, assured 100 days of work per rural household. The new law promises 125 days of wage employment. It also reduces the Union share of wage payments and bars work during peak agricultural seasons.
Earlier figures showed deletion of 4.57 crore job cards since 2019. Opposition members have opposed the new law from the start. They accused the government of weakening the legal right to work and shifting financial pressure to states.
