Bhubaneswar, August 28: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led Odisha government on Friday withdrew its earlier decision of making Aadhaar verification mandatory for people availing monthly social security pension from August 2020. The decision arrived after the government faced protests from food rights activists.

According to several media reports, the previous decision taken by the state government had left around 1.1 million beneficiaries in the lurch. Following this, food rights activists protested against the government's decision and later mandatory Aadhaar verification was revoked on Friday for withdrawal of pensions. Odisha Rains: State Fire Services Personnel Rescue 6 Trapped People Including Newborn From Flooded Village in Jajpur. 

Informing about the BJD government's new order, state information technology secretary Manoj Mishra said, as quoted by Hindustan Times, "CM Naveen Patnaik had made it clear to all officials that no one will need to go to a government office unless mandated by law. As part of the chief minister’s 5T initiative, the OdishaOne portal would be a one-stop platform for citizens to access all government services. All e-governance applications of various departments are being linked to the OdishaOne portal and once it is rolled out in the next three weeks, people can access it. It would be a single unified resource portal for citizens."

As per to the details, state's Madhu Babu Pension Yojana (MBPY) and National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) was done through online mode after Aadhaar verification or Aadhaar seeding of the database of beneficiaries. This online process had managed to seed around 82 per cent NSAP and 75 per cent MBPY beneficiaries.

Apart from the social security schemes, OdishaOne portal has integrated online database for services like issuance of birth certificate, death certificate, payment of electricity bills, booking of the tickets of OSRTC buses, payment of holding tax, payment of trade license fees, payment of water bill, among others.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2020 09:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).