Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for speeding up of UID-based Aadhaar project for early linkage of Aadhar number with various government benefit schemes, like recently-launched Jan Dhan Yojana, various kinds of scholarship and pension schemes and also to introduce Aadhaar number linked attendance system in government.
To speed up the process, the PM has desired to put on hold the verification concern being raised by the home ministry as far as rolling out of the Aadhaar number is concerned.
On Saturday, Mr Modi held a review meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh and communication and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and reviewed the progress through a presentation made by director-general of the Unique Identification Authority of India Vijay S. Madan.
The meeting, it is learnt, discussed to resolve the issue of verification of data collected by private vendors. Sources said, the Prime Minister wanted that the generation of UID number should be made independent of the National Population Register and accordingly the home ministry has been instructed to put on hold the verification issue with respect to UID numbers. The government would conduct a dry run for Aadhaar-linked attendance system for the government officials on September 14, sources said.
The high powered meeting meanwhile reviewed progress of the Aadhaar project, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where other schemes are facing difficulties due to low enrolments.
Currently, the government estimates show that a total of 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.
Aadhaar project can substantially reduce the duplicity of beneficiaries and help plug leakages, sources said.