Express news service : Wed Feb 06 2013, 04:36 hrs
As part of the Centre's Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) scheme, the linking of students' scholarship with Aadhaar number will be completed by March, said District Collector Vikas Deshmukh at a press conference on Tueday.
"All students will be covered under the scheme,'' said Deshmukh.
The issue will come up for discussion at a meeting with UID officials on Thursday at Lok Mangal.
Deshmukh said students will benefit irrespective of the Aadhaar card. Presently, the Aadhar card only covers 25 per cent of the district. Activists blame the slow pace on the "lack of planning and coordination" among public authorities. As many as 50,000 students from SC, ST, OBC and minority communities are yet to be covered under
Aadhar.
As per the official data, Pune district has more than 73,000 student beneficiaries — SC: 25,109, ST: 4,932, OBC: 30,048 and minority students: 13,041 — for DCT scheme. Student groups had met the collector on Monday to press for their demands.
To enroll students for UID, of more than the 300 machines with district administration, 83 have been allotted for Pune rural and cantonment areas and 17 for PMC.