CHENNAI: CPI state secretary R Mutharasan demanded the union government withdraw its decision to make the Aadhaar-based payment system mandatory for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme payments from January 1.

The union government has made mandatory that all wages under the MGNREGA scheme must be paid through an Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS), which requires workers' Aadhaar details to be seeded to their job cards.

In a statement, Mutharasan said that the imposition of ABPS is the latest expression of the Modi government's 'active hostility' towards the demand-based rural work guarantee law.

He said that the Union Ministry of Rural Development has weakened the scheme through its various directives and has cancelled six crore workers' job cards.

"The government has made meagre budget allocation for the MGNREGA scheme in this budget and thereby denying their wages for months.

He said that the party strongly condemns the Union Government's anti-agricultural act of forcing Aadhaar card-job card linkage and depriving them of work under the MGNREGA Scheme for those who do not link Aadhaar December 30.

"We demand the immediate withdrawal of the order and urge the state government to strongly protest it, " he said.