VIJAYAWADA: Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) CEO A Md Imtiaz submitted to the Andhra Pradesh High Court that the responsibilities of village/ward volunteers are only to identify beneficiaries of welfare schemes and receive applications from them.
The information and application forms collected by them are uploaded onto government websites by digital welfare assistants, he said and added that the Panchayat Raj Department has come up with standard operating procedures with regard to functioning of the volunteers and accordingly they work.
He stressed that volunteers are only social workers and serve the society. However, not satisfied with the reply of SERP CEO, the High Court sought to know how safe and secure is the data collected data which include Aadhaar and other personal details from the beneficiaries. It sought to know what steps are being taken to safeguard such sensitive data.
Justice B Devanand, who was hearing the petition filed by R Vasanta Lakshmi and 26 others from Garapadu village in Pedakurapadu mandal complaining that their names were deleted from the list of YSR Cheyutha programme beneficiaries for political reasons, questioned the SERP CEO that when there are staff in various government departments, what right do volunteers have to identify beneficiaries of the welfare schemes.
He asked the CEO whether the volunteers were government employees and if not, on what basis they were given the powers to identify beneficiaries. Further hearing in the case was adjourned to March 10.