Sivakumar B, TNN | Feb 20, 2015, 01.03AM IST
CHENNAI: Any number of efforts to draw Chennai residents out for aadhaar registration doesn't seem to work as the city remains at the bottom of the list. The city, as per February 15 data, has only 66.23% of the eligible population (above five years), who have opted to register their names. Of the total 41.53 lakh persons eligible to be registered in Chennai, only 25.99 lakh have come forward to register.
Now, the department has come up with yet another measure to improve registration in the city. Chennai would get 10 more centres for residents to register their names for aadhaar. This is in addition to 50 centres both permanent and temporary already functioning within corporation limits.
"Currently there are 15 permanent centres operating in and around the city. Apart from this, there are 35 centres in Chennai Corporation unit, zone and collectorate. As there are nearly 15 lakh persons yet to register, registration centres will be set up in 10 taluk offices in and around the city," said census joint director M R V Krishna Rao.
In the city, 1.51 lakh have registered in the permanent centres and aadhaar has been generated for only 24.18 lakh so far. Across the state, aadhaar has been generated for 4.80 crore persons.
Tamil Nadu has 6.74 crore people who are eligible to register under aadhaar and of this, 5.16 crore (76.65%) opted to do so. Perambalur continues to top the districts with 92.37% of the eligible population registering and this is followed by Nagapattinam with 87.70%.
Though LPG companies are insisting on aadhaar numbers as part of the Pahal scheme of linking LPG connections with bank accounts to receive the subsidy, the city residents don't seem to be in a hurry to register.
Many residents say they have enlisted at the nearest corporation office and are now awaiting calls for registration. "It is more than three months since I enlisted my name with the corporation office in Adyar but I have not received any message from the office asking me and my family to register for aadhaar," said B S Shenoy, a resident of Mandaveli. But census officials say such delays are being sorted out and more centres would hopefully increase the registration percentage.