Lakhisarai: More than 38,000 rural workers in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district could lose access to employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) after failing to complete mandatory electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) verification, officials have said. The move is part of a wider government effort to improve transparency and ensure wages are paid directly to beneficiaries.
Out of 135,106 active job card holders in the district, only 96,612 have completed their e-KYC verification so far. The remaining 38,494 workers have yet to comply, raising concerns about their eligibility for work in the upcoming employment cycle. Authorities have warned that without completing the verification process, workers will not be allowed to participate in MGNREGA projects.
The reforms follow longstanding concerns about intermediaries and irregularities in wage payments under the rural employment scheme. In response, the government introduced an Aadhaar-based payment system to ensure direct benefit transfer (DBT), allowing wages to be credited straight into workers’ bank accounts. As part of this process, officials have already completed Aadhaar seeding and job card verification for all active workers in the district.
However, progress on e-KYC verification has been uneven across gram panchayats. Departmental data shows that in 36 panchayats, completion rates range between 52.79% and 73.45%. Another 20 panchayats have achieved verification levels between 73.5% and 77.26%, while 20 panchayats have reported higher compliance rates of up to 90.46%.
Sumit Kumar, the deputy development commissioner of Lakhisarai, said workers who fail to complete e-KYC would not be eligible for employment under MGNREGA. He has directed programme officers across the district to ensure 100% verification within the current month. In a further push to meet the target, officials warned that salaries of programme officers in blocks that fail to achieve full compliance could be withheld.
The verification drive forms part of broader efforts to strengthen accountability and ensure that public funds reach genuine beneficiaries without leakage. Authorities say the Aadhaar-linked system is intended to prevent fraud, eliminate middlemen, and reinforce trust in one of India’s largest rural employment programmes.
