New Delhi (PTI): Bank accounts of around 1.13 crore workers under the rural job scheme MGNREGA are yet to be seeded with their Aadhaar numbers, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the minister said wage payment to beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) may be made either using Aadhaar-based payment bridge systems or national automated clearing house depending upon the status of a beneficiary in the Aadhaar-based systems.

He said that bank accounts of 1,13,86,599 workers, or 8.93 per cent of the total active workers, are yet to be seeded with their Aadhaar numbers.

The minister said northeastern states are lagging behind in the process, with accounts of more than 42 per cent workers in Assam, around 23 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh, over 70 per cent in Meghalaya, and 37 per cent in Nagaland not being seeded with Aadhaar numbers.

To a question on ''whether it is also a fact that any duplications or misuse of job cards have not been detected after Aadhaar seeding of more than 90 per cent of the active workers'', the minister said almost 33.23 lakh job cards have been deleted due to different reasons such as being fake or incorrect job card, duplicate job card, individual not willing to work, family shifted from gram panchayat permanently and the card holder expiring.

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Srinagar(PTI): At least three unidentified terrorists were killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces in the forests of Harwan near Dachigam in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, officials said.

"Three terrorists have been neutralised in an intense firefight. Operation Continues," Srinagar-based Chinar Corps of the Army posted on X.

The identity and group affiliation of the slain terrorists were being ascertained.

Security forces had launched a massive operation to track down the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack that left 26 people dead, and intelligence inputs over the past month had suggested that the terrorists might have moved towards the Dachigam area, which is around 20 km from Srinagar's city centre.

However, it was not immediately clear if the three slain terrorists were involved in the April 22 attack.

The security forces, acting on an intelligence input, launched an anti-militancy operation in the Mulnar area of Harwan on Monday morning. Two rounds of gunshots were heard from a distance as security forces were carrying out searches of the area.

Reinforcements were rushed to the area, and the combing operations intensified, which led to the elimination of the three terrorists.