Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, April 01, 2012
The Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will initiate enrolment of 40 crore Indians from this month, which the authority promises to be a smoother and faster process.
A person would be able to enrol at the UIDAI registrar in half-an-hour and the
authority wants to deliver the Aadhaar letter in less than 45 days after successful enrolment. This has been done by smoothing the entire registration, enrolment and unique identification or Aadhaar number generation process.
“We have brought changes at three levels,” director general of UIDAI RS Sharma told HT. They are at the time of enrolment, when the information packets are uploaded for generating numbers and at the time of issuing the letters.
To ensure that the Aadhaar number reaches the resident in time, the UIDAI will be asking all private enrollers to scan the documents of proof of residence and sent to the authority’s database in Bangalore. “Even if the address is wrong on the registration form there will be a way to cross check the address of undelivered Aadhaar letters,” Sharma said.
In the first leg of issuing 20 crore unique identification or Aadhaar numbers, around five lakh letters were undelivered. It was primarily insufficient or wrong address at the time of registr ation, resulting in people not getting their Aadhaar numbers even eight months after enrolment. An average time to get an Aadhaar letter was four months. The UIDAI has a mandate by the Cabinet for enrolment of 40 crore more in the next 18 months and the process for the same will start from Monday. “We have called a meeting of all private partners on April 3 to train them about the changes made,” Sharma said.
Although the authority had decided to continue the introducer concept for people, who don’t have any documents as proof of residence, its application will be much more stringent. “Introducer will be allowed for only those who don’t have any sort of residential proof,” a senior UIDAI official said, terming the concept a key for inclusive identity regime.
The government has decided to split the population between the UIDAI and home ministry’s census commissioner, who will conduct the final sweep to provide Aadhaar numbers to the uncovered ones. “We (UIDAI and Census Commissioner) have decided to work in close tandem so that the entire exercise is completed within the mandated timeframe,” the official said.