The UID project did not take off on Monday due to lack of clear guidelines from Mantralaya; district collectorate says it may start on Jan 15
Nadeem Inamdar
Posted On Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 12:09:47 AM
The ambitious Unique Identification Number or Aadhaar project failed to take off as scheduled on Monday due to the absence of clear-cut directives from the state government’s General Administration Department (GAD) and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The district collectorate, however, maintains that the project is likely to start from January 15.
The project, to be implemented across Pune district including Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), will cover an aggregate population of around 30 lakh citizens.
The ambitious Unique Identification Number or Aadhaar project failed to take off as scheduled on Monday due to the absence of clear-cut directives from the state government’s General Administration Department (GAD) and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The district collectorate, however, maintains that the project is likely to start from January 15.
The project, to be implemented across Pune district including Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), will cover an aggregate population of around 30 lakh citizens.
Reason for delay
Tehsildar Seema Holkar, project co-ordinator for the UID scheme, said, “The UID project could not begin on Monday as the UIDAI was yet to give its permission to one of the software companies to begin work. Moreover, we are yet to receive clear-cut guidelines from Mantralaya. Taking into account the prevailing circumstances, the UID project is likely to begin from January 15.”
The appointees
The state government has appointed Wipro, Smart Chips and Tera Software to undertake data collection work in the district. The data collection includes enrolment of residents and collection of their photos and fingerprints. The administration had called a meeting of all the tehsildars, sub divisional officers (SDOs) and chief executive officers of municipal councils on January 4 to chalk out an implementation plan for the project.
The meeting was chaired by resident deputy collector R K Gaikwad, who gave instructions to the Maval tehsildar to initiate the plan to implement the project in a few hamlets of his choice. A meeting to train government officials was scheduled to take place during the second week of January. The entire work is slated to be completed by the end of 2013. The UID project was initially expected to begin in Pune district from November 2010, but remained on paper due to a lack of clear guidelines and detailed planning from the state government.
How Aadhar will help
The UID project, which identifies individuals on the basis of their demographic information and biometrics, will give people the means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country.
It can help poor residents easily establish their identity to banks wherein it will be easy for them to scale up their branch-less banking deployments and reach out to a wider population at a lower cost.
What is Aadhaar?
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which the UIDAI will issue for all residents. The number will be stored in a centralised database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information — photograph, ten fingerprints and iris — of each individual. The details of the data fields and verification procedures will be made available here.
Aadhaar will be:
1 Easily verifiable in an online, cost-effective way
2 Unique and robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities in government and private databases
3 A random number, devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography
Tehsildar Seema Holkar, project co-ordinator for the UID scheme, said, “The UID project could not begin on Monday as the UIDAI was yet to give its permission to one of the software companies to begin work. Moreover, we are yet to receive clear-cut guidelines from Mantralaya. Taking into account the prevailing circumstances, the UID project is likely to begin from January 15.”
The appointees
The state government has appointed Wipro, Smart Chips and Tera Software to undertake data collection work in the district. The data collection includes enrolment of residents and collection of their photos and fingerprints. The administration had called a meeting of all the tehsildars, sub divisional officers (SDOs) and chief executive officers of municipal councils on January 4 to chalk out an implementation plan for the project.
The meeting was chaired by resident deputy collector R K Gaikwad, who gave instructions to the Maval tehsildar to initiate the plan to implement the project in a few hamlets of his choice. A meeting to train government officials was scheduled to take place during the second week of January. The entire work is slated to be completed by the end of 2013. The UID project was initially expected to begin in Pune district from November 2010, but remained on paper due to a lack of clear guidelines and detailed planning from the state government.
How Aadhar will help
The UID project, which identifies individuals on the basis of their demographic information and biometrics, will give people the means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country.
It can help poor residents easily establish their identity to banks wherein it will be easy for them to scale up their branch-less banking deployments and reach out to a wider population at a lower cost.
What is Aadhaar?
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which the UIDAI will issue for all residents. The number will be stored in a centralised database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information — photograph, ten fingerprints and iris — of each individual. The details of the data fields and verification procedures will be made available here.
Aadhaar will be:
1 Easily verifiable in an online, cost-effective way
2 Unique and robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities in government and private databases
3 A random number, devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography
