This week in developments around government policy and Aadhaar:

Salary can’t be stopped because the salary account is not connected to Aadhaar: Bombay HC

A division bench of the Bombay High Court questioned the Centre’s decision to withhold the salary of the employee because the salary account was not linked to Aadhaar card. This was while hearing a petition filed by the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) employee Ramesh Purale, a chargeman, after his salary was stopped in July 2016. More in The Asian Age.

Two more starvation deaths reported in Jharkhand because of Aadhaar

At least two more persons have died of starvation in Jharkhand due to Aadhaar related vulnerabilities, says a report by Right to Food Campaign. On November 11, Kaleshwar Soren (45) died of hunger and destitution after his family’s ration card was cancelled as it was not linked to Aadhaar. On October 25, Seeta Devi (75) died of starvation as she did not have any food or cash at home, and could not go to the ration shop to get ration. She was also denied old-age pension as her bank account was not linked to Aadhaar. More on The Wire.

January 2019 deadline for creating Bihar farmers’ database

Bihar Agriculture Minister Prem Kumar has set a January 2019 deadline to create a database of farmers in the state. This database would be used for providing direct benefit transfer (DBT) to 1.61 crore farmers in the state. Farmers are required to give their Aadhaar number, cellphone number and biometric data for the online registration. The registration will be done by two agencies- Sahaj and Common Service Centre (CSC). More on The Times of India.

Karnataka govt to verify the credentials of the farmers for crop loan waiver

The Karnataka government will begin the process of verifying details of all farmers availing the benefits of the crop loan waiver. This will begin in the first half of December. 6,500 branches of commercial banks have been given the responsibility of verifying the data. Farmers would be expected to visit the branches and submit Aadhaar, ration card and survey number. More on The New Indian Express.