Sep 06, 2014 | Age Correspondent | New Delh
In a bid to resolve issue of job duplication between home ministry and UIDAI in rolling out unique numbers under Aadhaar project and increase the pace of enrolment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called a meeting of ministers for home, law, information technology and Planning Commission.
In a bid to resolve issue of job duplication between home ministry and UIDAI in rolling out unique numbers under Aadhaar project and increase the pace of enrolment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called a meeting of ministers for home, law, information technology and Planning Commission.
The PMO has asked the secretaries of home and planning to give their respective presentations on the progress made by each of them in collecting biometric details of number of individuals and issuing unique ID numbers to residents of India, sources said, adding that the issue of differences between NPR and UID will also come up for discussion during the meeting.
As the government plans to use the Aadhaar numbers as a tool for its various welfare schemes including the Jan Dhan Yojana, sources said, “The Prime Minister wants to have a re-look at the progress of the project, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where other schemes are facing difficulties due to low Aadhaar enrolments.”
At present, 66.99 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued.
In Uttar Pradesh, about 4.62 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued against a population of 19.95 crore. In Bihar, around 1.41 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued against a population of about 10.38 crore.
“Prime Minister wants the project to be completed as soon as possible so that it can be used for the various welfare initiatives and programmes of the government including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana,” sources said, adding that he aims to figure out the differences in issuing ID numbers under NPR and UIDAI.
Under Aadhar project, UIDAI issues unique identification number to residents and collects their biometric details. The same job is also being done by the NPR under home ministry and the previous UPA government had divided states between the two.
The previous UPA government had entrusted UIDAI, which issues unique identification numbers to residents, to start enrolments in four more states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand in February 2014. There are around 40 crore people in these four states, which were earlier covered under the NPR project. In the backdrop of slow progress by NPR in these states, the government is pushing for the Aadhaar enrolments in these four states and other parts of the country.