1548 - State orders banks to stop UID enrolments - Hindustan Times

Prajakta Chavan, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, August 14, 2011
First Published: 01:23 IST(14/8/2011)
Last Updated: 01:25 IST(14/8/2011)

Unique identification (UID) enrolment centres in the city will reduce drastically because the state government’s information technology (IT) department has asked all non-state registrars to stop their operations until they sign an agreement with them.

Non-state registrars include nationalised banks such as Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India and LIC, India post, who have signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre to carry out UID enrolments.

The department will also ask non-state registrars to carry out their operations in remote areas instead of metros. As a result, the UID centres in the city are expected to close down.

“In the metros, majority of people have the required documents to avail of the government-run schemes. People in interiors, however, do not have such proofs and therefore they do not get the benefits, which they deserve. Since, UID registrations are undertaken mainly to identify people who require benefits of government-run schemes, we will request non-state registrars to focus on remote areas,” said Dr Santosh Bhogle, under secretary (IT).

In the letter addressed to all non-state registrars and local authorities, the department has stated, that certain non-state registrars are not complying with the state’s decision, specifically of filling the know your resident (KYR) form prescribed by the state.

“This data will be utilised to provide to both the state and central government. Therefore, it is important to both the governments. Certain non-state registrars, however, were providing data only to the Centre. To streamline this, all non-state registrars need to sign an agreement with the state and only then begin enrolment activities,” Bhogle said.

Mahesh Narvekar chief officer of the civic body’s disaster cell and in charge of UID enrolments said, “We received the letter around 4-5 days ago. We have instructed all non-state registrars to stop work. We have also instructed ward officers to keep a check on their centres.”