The launch of the pilot phase of the Aadhaar project, for allotting the first batch of unique identification (UID) numbers, has been postponed twice in less than a week, this time indefinitely. The project was to be inaugurated on Wednesday in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh by prime minister Manmohan Singh. The state government called off the event after the prime minister’s office (PMO) objected to the launch being clubbed with other events.
“We had everything ready for the big launch, but PMO officials wanted the UID project to have an exclusive inauguration. The objective is to get better publicity for the high profile exercise, which the government wants to showcase as one of its major achievements,” a person close to the development told Financial Chronicle. “If the launch were to be held on September 1, it would compete for attention with other events scheduled for the day, something that the officials wanted to avoid.”
Earlier, the event had been scheduled for August 27 though no official announcement had been made. The state government on its part had claimed that the launch would happen in third or fourth week of August.
At that time, the reason put forward for delaying it was that the prime minister was supposed to visit the st ate on September 1 and would not be able to make two trips at such a short interval. An official said, the launch of the UID project was likely to happen in the vicinity of Hyderabad. The dates for the same have not been decided though. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has set a target of 3 crore allotments for AP by the end of fis cal 2011. Target for whole of India is 10 crore by March 2011.