Overview
- The Finance Department issued an in‑principle order on July 27 to stop routine doorstep payments by cooperative banks and route social security and welfare pensions to Aadhaar‑linked bank accounts except for beneficiaries who are fully bedridden.
- Officials justified the move with CAG findings and internal reviews that found delays in returning undistributed amounts, poor recordkeeping, duplicate payments and incentive costs paid to cooperative societies for home delivery.
- The decision affects about 62 lakh pensioners and the government says roughly 39 lakh are already on DBT, while opposition leaders say about 23–25 lakh still rely on doorstep delivery and will face exclusion or hardship.
- Opposition figures including Pinarayi Vijayan, K. N. Balagopal and T. M. Thomas Isaac have demanded an immediate rollback and announced mobilisations, arguing the Centre’s cash share is small and cooperative networks serve vulnerable people.
- Key implementation questions remain unresolved: how quickly unbanked or non‑Aadhaar beneficiaries can be migrated, what safeguards will protect elderly and disabled pensioners, and how cooperative banks’ doorstep workers and incentive payments will be handled.