Wednesday, April 4, 2012

2491 - ‘Aadhaar seeding project' to be launched on April 2 - THE HINDU



KAKINADA, March 31, 2012 BY STAFF REPORTER, 

Data to be utilised for implementation of schemes

After providing electronic identification number (EID) to 98 per cent of the population in East Godavari district, the administration is now making arrangements to launch ‘Aadhaar seeding project.'

This first of its kind pilot project helps the administration make use of the data being collected for issuing ‘Aadhaar' cards to implement various welfare schemes and handover cash benefits from several government departments directly to the beneficiaries.

The project, to be launched on April 2, 2012, will be completed in two months.
Joint Collector A. Babu, at a press conference here on Friday, said that of the 51,51,549 population in the district, EID had already been given to 50,03,549 individuals.

“Aadhaar cards have already been distributed to 37 lakh people so far and the remaining will also get their cards soon,” he said, adding that notwithstanding the Aaadhaar cards, the seeding project could be taken up with the help of the EID numbers, which had already been generated.

“As part of the project, we are including the mobile phone numbers and bank account numbers of most of the individuals. The idea is to collect the phone and account numbers of at least one person from each family,” Mr. Babu explained.

Bank accounts
Referring to the statistics, the Joint Collector said that 84 per cent of the population from the district was having mobile phones and 41 per cent had bank accounts. “Under the Reserve Bank of India's financial inclusion programme, we will make all individuals to get zero balance bank accounts. These bank accounts will help us credit whatever benefits come from the government directly into their accounts,” he said.
On collection of mobile phone numbers, Mr. Babu said that the data could be used to keep the individuals inform about the arrival of stocks to their fair price shop concerned.
“Plans are afoot to set up one Aadhaar centre in each mandal on a permanent basis and issue pink ration cards to those who needed them,” he said.