13745 - Hyderabad: Schools flout Aadhaar Act, feed pupil’s data DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Hyderabad: Schools flout Aadhaar Act, feed pupil’s data

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | 

COREENA SUARES

Published

Jun 26, 2018, 1:30 am IST

Data of 9.07cr students seeded into central database.

 The schools are collecting information on academic information, family details, examination, results, scholarship, achievement, attendance, disability, personal details and general information.

Hyderabad: The Aadhaar and personal details of 9.07 crore minor students out of the total registered base of 21.64 crore has been fed into a central database as part of a child tracking system.

The Aadhaar details are being harvested from schools across the country which have been collecting the details of students to implement their performance review system. The Aadhaar identification information is being seeded into the central database in violation of Section 8 of the Aadhaar Act.

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Every state has a separate Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) portal. Schools were informed to collect data of students from Classes 1 to 12 and compile it by April 25. The idea was to create a student data management information system (SDMIS) which will be used to track details of every student for the Child Tracking System (CTS) and keep a record of all documents digitally. The schools are collecting information on academic performance, family details, examination, results, scholarship, achievement, attendance, disability, personal details and general information of every student. The SDMIS will be under the U-DISE.

This initiative has been introduced to keep a record of the academic journey of every student studying in around 15 lakh government and private schools nationwide. Students will be tracked with the help of their Aadhaar number.

This programme is a part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan where the Centre aims to provide education to all students and improve quality of education.
Mr Anivar Aravind, a volunteer with ‘Destroy Aadhaar’ said, “As per the student.udise.in portal, the total number of students registered till June 25 was 21,64,76,390. Those who have registered with Aadhaar are 9,07,22,617. The process for collection of Aadhaar data does not follow Sections 8 or 29 of the Aadhaar Act.”

He said the Aadhaar details of nine crore children collected by schools as part of the school performance report system is being seeded into the central database without any consent.

Another anti-Aadhaar volunteer, Mr Azad Mallik, said, “Ever state has a dedicated student data hub. The Aadhaar enabled DISE is deployed with a concept adopted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). What will the department do with information security and privacy of children?”

Tags: child tracking, aadhaar act, minor student

Location: India, Telangana, Hyderabad

10355- Edu dept to fast-track aadhaar linking process - TNN

Edu dept to fast-track aadhaar linking process

TNN | Aug 24, 2016, 06.10 AM IST

RANCHI: School education and literacy department secretary Aradhana Patnaik issued a letter to all the deputy commissioners asking them to complete the process of linking school students'and teachers' Aadhaar cards to bank accounts by September 30. 

The department has come up with the plan of linking so that the government scheme funds can reach them through direct benefit transfer (DBT).

Patnaik said, "While the work of linking the Aadhaar with bank accounts is almost 90% done in high schools, there is still a gap in the middle and primary schools with only 72% linkage. However, Aadhaar cards of 80% students have been made already and bank accounts of 70% have been opened. We are aiming to complete the linkage by the end of September."

A major problem the department is facing in this process is that while many schools are claiming 100% linkage, the final report submitted to the government shows otherwise. 

Patnaik said, "In the letter, I have directed them to collect the certificates from schools stating that they have completed 100% linkage so that during verification their claims, if false, can be taken up against them." 

The schools have to submit a final report of linkage by September 15 to show the progress made.A few districts including Bokaro, Dhanbad, Garhwa and Chatra are lagging behind in the process and have been directed to expedite the work.

Meanwhile, camps are being put up at every district for making Aadhaar cards of students and linking them with bank accounts. 

"We are facing a major problem in some camps where the turnout of students is much high than the number of Aadhaar card making kits available. We have requested the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to provide us more kits for the camps," Patnaik said.

On Tuesday, chief secretary Rajbala Verma conducted a review meeting of school education and literacy department in which she was informed that 73. 95 lakh aadhaar cards have been collected already and bank accounts of more than 69 lakh students has been opened. Of these, aadhar cards of 53,09851 students have already been linked with the bank accounts. The CS directed the department to complete linking the accounts at the earliest so that DBT can be started. 

10095 - Crackdown on double enrolments - TNN

Crackdown on double enrolments

TNN | Jun 2, 2016, 09.58 AM IST

RANCHI: The school education and literacy department has decided to maintain a record of government school students' aadhaar card numbers to avoid duplicate enrolments. 

"As per school registers, around 50 lakh students have been enrolled into government schools. But, when we go through mid-day meal lists, we discover that only 36 lakh students are availing of MDM. When we visit schools for inspection, few of them have more than 60% attendance," department secretary Aradhana Patnaik said. 

Patnaik said these incidents indicate discrepancies in maintaining enrolment records in schools. "We have been notified of cases where a child has been enrolled in more than one school, or, despite enrolment does not attend classes," said Patnaik.

There could be reasons behind double enrolments, Patnaik said. "A few children are enrolled into private schools, but are also enrolled into a government school to avail certain benefits," said the secretary. 

Patnaik said, "Another reason for double enrolments could be to recruit more para teachers. According to the rules, one extra para teacher has to be recruited for every 40 students enrolled."

Under the new system, a record of students' aadhaar card numbers will be maintained at the block level. "We have decided to keep a record of aadhaar numbers as it is unique and most students have it. If there is a duplication, we will be able to cross check information and remove ghost enrolments from our database. This will ensure that only needy students avail the benefits under government schemes," Patnaik said.

9165 - ‘Aadhaar’ opens Pandora’s box for school managements - The Hindu

VIJAYAWADA, December 12, 2015

‘Aadhaar’ opens Pandora’s box for school managements

•  P. SUJATHA VARMA

Even as school managements heaved a sigh of relief after the government relaxed the rule that makes inclusion of Aadhaar card numbers in the SSC forms mandatory, authorities in the Education Department say the norm will be back very soon.

The Andhra Pradesh State Education Department, in a circular issued on November 26, said inclusion of Aadhaar number was mandatory for students writing their SSC exams in March 2016. 

The categorical warning handed out by the department setting December 15 as the deadline sent school managements and parents into a tizzy. It took a good number of furious parents and baffled school managements to deplore the move and remind the authorities concerned about the SC directive that Aadhaar card should be made mandatory only for those availing an LPG subsidy and the beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System, to retract the move.

Krishna District Educational Officer A. Subba Reddy says the respite given to schools to secure Aadhaar cards of students of all classes is only temporary. “Aadhaar is necessary to put in place a fool-proof system. We may have relaxed the norm for now, but in the days to come, the Department will insist on it,” he clarifies. The government move, meanwhile, has opened a Pandora’s box for school managements. Some of them accuse the Education Department officials of resorting to arm-twisting tactics. “We have been asked to collect Aadhaar information from all students. The officials say if we fail in the task, they would not allow our 10th class students to write their exams. This is proving to be cumbersome. I have been calling parents and asking them to bring their children’s Aadhaar card details but to no avail,” says headmistress of a primary wing of a prominent school in city.

“A large section of parents of our students are not educated and they take time to comprehend the urgency of the issue. Even if you apply under Tatkal, it takes a minimum of 10-15 days to generate the Aadhaar number. Then there is the problem of discrepancy in the spellings of the students’ names and other details in the birth certificates and the Aadhaar cards which need to be addressed afresh,” says P. Rupavathi, founder secretary and correspondent of Noble Kids’ English Medium High School at Maruthi Nagar. The DEO maintains that the department is going slow as nearly 50,000-60,000 of the 6 lakh-odd students in Krishna district do not have Aadhaar cards. “Schools must utilise the given time to do the needful,” he says.

Krishna District Educational Officer A. Subba Reddy says the respite given to schools to secure Aadhaar cards of students of all classes is only temporary

9161 - Students’ Aadhaar enrolment drive to gather steam - TNN

Students’ Aadhaar enrolment drive to gather steam

Stanley Pinto, TNN | Dec 10, 2015, 11.35PM IST

Mangaluru: The Dakshina Kannada district administration is going aggressive on Aadhaar enrolment of students with a plan to cover 1.15 lakh children, aged between five and 18, studying in government, aided, and private schools in the next three months. Currently, there are about 1 crore children who are not enrolled under Aadhaar in Karnataka. 

The drive will commence as soon as the administration gets additional kits from the Atalji Janasnehi Centre and Centre for e-Governance (CEG). 

As many as 22,000 were enrolled between July and December. Sources said that holidays and non-availability of kits had posed problems in getting maximum enrolment under Aadhaar. The district administration will get 10 kits from Atal Janasnehi Centres and an additional 16 kits from the CEG. These will be distributed according to the need. For example, Mangaluru South has 22,000 students to be enrolled and that area will be allotted two kits. The kit consists of a laptop, iris scanner and fingerprint scanner, printer, lamp and backscreen. 

For this purpose, the district administration will freeze Aadhaar enrolment of public at Mangaluru A hobli, Bantwal, Vittal, Puttur, Uppinangady, Panja (in Sullia taluk), Venoor and Kokkada of Belthangady taluks and Moodabidri as these kits are being used for school enrolment purpose.

9155 - Staff, machine shortage cripple Aadhaar drive for college students - Deccan herald

Staff, machine shortage cripple Aadhaar drive for college students

Shruthi H M, Dec 9, 2015, Bengaluru: DHNS:

Even as the State government has begun a massive enrolment drive for Aadhaar cards among school students, pre university colleges too have now been roped for the task.

Along with school students, the government hopes to ensure that all the PU students in the State have Aadhaar numbers by the end of this academic year. As per the plan, the government is sending a team of representatives for generation of Aadhaar numbers for students at their respective colleges. The Department of Pre University Education has directed the principals of all PU colleges (government, aided and unaided) to provide requisite information of students for the purpose.

However, the ambitious project is moving at a rather slow pace as far as the PU colleges are concerned. The Deputy Directors of Pre University Education (DDPUs) who are monitoring the project at the ground level told Deccan Herald that it had not progressed much owing to lack of human resources and the machines used for generating the numbers.

According to the DDPUs, they are able to manage registration of only about 40 to 50 students per day in their respective districts. There are around 4,500 PU colleges in all across the state and they fear that this process would stretch for months together.
Requesting anonymity, a DDPU said, “There aren't sufficient number of machines. Also, unlike the BEO offices, the DDPU offices are short staffed and we are finding it really difficult to manage this enrollment drive.

Another DDPU added, “In my district there are around 350 colleges with 80,000 students or more. The current pace is not more than 40 students per day. Moreover, when the team goes to the college, the students are not always available. We are feeling that the project is too massive for us to handle with the current resources.”

At the State-level, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is co-ordinating the drive. PC Jaffer, state project director, SSA, said they would be making more kits available as and when needed.

“We have just started it only recently. We will increase the number of Aadhaar kits as per requirement.” Also, he opined that the challenges faced in Bengaluru required a different strategy altogether as the city had the highest number of those who had not enrolled for Aadhar.

8758 - Special Aadhaar enrolment camp for school students - The Hindu

ERODE, September 26, 2015

Special Aadhaar enrolment camp for school students

• SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The special camp for issuing Aadhaar cards for 1.4 lakh left-out school students was inaugurated at the Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Erode, by District Collector S. Prabakar on Friday.

Of the 3.6 lakh school students, 1.6 lakh had received their Aadhaar cards and 40,000 had enrolled but were yet to receive their cards.

The 1.4 lakh left-out students will be covered over the next three months in all the 14 blocks simultaneously, at the rate of 40 to 50 students per school per day.

Kits

Twenty out of 50 enrolment kits sought for the purpose by the Election Department have been provided. The remaining kits will be augmented for the exercise in a week’s time, according to official sources.

College students

A similar exercise will be carried out to cover left-out college students too.

8741 - Biometric data drive underway to cover govt school students - TNN

Biometric data drive underway to cover govt school students

TNN | Sep 22, 2015, 10.02 AM IS

TRICHY: Around 14 camps are underway to collect biometric data from all the government school children in the district who have not been covered by the project so far.

The programme was first rolled out at the Syed Murtaza School in Trichy and is being monitored by taluk officials who have been assigned to collect the biometric data. According to officials, the state education department has ordered the district education officials to carry out the drive as part of the national population register (NPR).

The department has notified the headmasters of government school in the district to carry out a survey to identify the children who have already sought Aadhaar so they can be left out from the latest drive.

A senior education official said the government was trying to make the students get the cards in view of the various subsidies rolled out for students by the Central government, so that the money meant for each student can be transferred to their bank accounts.

Headmasters and teachers have been asked to send the list of students in each school and are working on conducting camps for the students.

The taluk offices in rural parts and the city corporation Aadhaar centres in urban areas will aid the school education department in the task.

8709 - Camps for Adhaar enrolment - The Hindu

TIRUCHI, September 17, 2015

Camps for Adhaar enrolment

Special camps to record bio-metric data of schoolchildren, who were not covered so far, for issue of Aadhaar cards would be conducted at the schools. The camps are being organised at schools by the respective tahsildhars and one such camp was inaugurated at the Syed Murthuza Government Higher Secondary School in the city on Tuesday. Students who have not recorded their biometric details so far can avail the opportunity. Applications can be had from the school heads, Collector K.S. Palanisamy said in a press release.

SANSKRIT CLASSES

Samskrita Bharathi will conduct free Samskrit classes at four places in Tiruchi from September 18. The classes will be held at Saradha Samithi, Puthur, Vageesha Vidhyashram School, Srirangam, Boiler Plant Nursery and Primary School, BHEL Township, and Raghavendra School, Thuraiyur. The course would be of 10-day duration initially and held once a week thereafter. The initial course would be on conversational skills, alphabet, grammar, and slokas. Admission is open to all and there will be no age registration. For registrations, call 94437 22042 or 9884104024.

AMMA CAMPS

Special camps under the Assured Maximum Service to Marginalised People in All Villages (AMMA) Scheme will be held at the following places in the district on Friday: K. Sathanur, Panchapur, Natarajapuram, Adavathur (East), Nallampillai, Paluvanchi (West), Magizhampadi, Dheerampalayam, Moovanur, Kottapalayam and Arasalur (Thirunarayanapuram). Residents of the villages can avail the services of the Revenue Department at the camp, Collector K.S.Palanisamy said in a press release.

SHOPPING FESTIVAL

Aura, a city-based women’s forum, would kick-start the festival shopping season with a two-day shopping festival, Utsav, in the city this weekend. There will be a wide variety of items, including clothes, jewellery, gift items, leather bags, footwear, Ayurvedic products, corporate gifts, home décor, confectionary, curtains and furniture and educational aids, would be on sale at the shopping mela. Special demonstrations by experts on yoga, tips on skin care, health care, care of leather and silk sarees, games, origami, nail art and mehandi would also be organised as part of the event, according to an Aura press release. The festival would be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at Hotel Sangam, the release added.

8703 - Aadhaar enrolment in schools - The Hindu

KANCHEEPURAM, September 16, 2015

Aadhaar enrolment in schools

• STAFF REPORTER

The enrolment of school students who have not yet applied for Aadhaar number in Kancheepuram district began here on Tuesday.

According to official sources, a total of 2,11,075 children were studying in high and higher secondary schools in the district. Out of this, 1,32,691 have already obtained Aaadhaar number and 26,647 have applied for the same. The left out students — 51,937 in total — would be covered during the special enrolment camps to be organised at their respective schools and the exercise would be completed by December.

8430 - Govt considers linking educational records to Aadhaar - Live Mint

Govt considers linking educational records to Aadhaar

The idea is to link Aadhaar to the performance record of students from Class X onwards

Prashant K. Nanda

At least five million CBSE students’ details will be uploaded over a period of time after the labour ministry verifies that all of them have Aadhaar numbers. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

New Delhi: Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Number that 890 million Indians possess, could soon find a mention on all educational certificates from Class X onward, in a move that will, apart from helping students and employers, also tackle the fake educational degree menace in India.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Human Resource Development-controlled Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are in talks on the subject. The idea is to link Aadhaar to the performance record of students—marksheets, merit certificates and migration certificates, among others—from Class X onwards.

CBSE has already shared the past four years’ data (2011-14) of students who have passed Class X and XII from schools affiliated to the board with the labour and employment ministry for uploading onto the National Career Service (NCS) portal, two government officials said, requesting anonymity. At least five million CBSE students’ details will be uploaded over a period of time after the labour ministry verifies that all of them have Aadhaar numbers.

Aadhaar is mandatory for registering on NCS, a portal that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched on 20 July as a precursor to establishing a national labour market information system.

“Beginning with CBSE, we can go to other boards and do the same. The purpose is to develop a kind of permanent career number,” said one of the two government officials cited above. “Once the Aadhaar number is seeded in a marksheet, it will continue to be replicated in all marksheets/certificates at the higher level, thus becoming a permanent number,” the official explained.

Once implemented, the move will also help both students and employers, the second official said. The NCS portal will act as a repository and an employer can request for a background verification through it.

“By just verifying the Aadhaar number, the background screening of a student can be done in minutes, and the NCS portal can facilitate this,” the second official said.

Fake degrees are a big problem in India. Delhi’s former law minister (belonging to the activist Aam Aadmi Party) was found to have falsified his degree. In June and July several thousand teachers with fake degrees in Bihar resigned after the Patna High Court asked authorities to crack down on the menace.

Aadhaar could also kick-start the plan to build a national academic repository—an old plan of the human resource development ministry. The second official said the Aadhaar-linking would also be helpful in tracking students’ mobility by creating an electronic registry and could be utilized while dematerialising (or putting in electronic form) academic certificates as was planned by the previous government. The government is in favour of such a repository and plans to table an Academic Repository bill in Parliament.

Till the time a formal respository is created, NCS will act as one. With the government in favour of a single labour market information system, where qualification providers, skill trainers, career counsellors, job seekers and job providers can operate on a single platform, such a move could be of real value.

Verification of educational credentials is not easy in India right now because of the sheer number of students, colleges and institutions, said Shreya Krishnan, head, marketing at background screening company First Advantage. “There is no integrated system, no aggregator for such a purpose. It is largely unorganized and background screening of candidates at times is very challenging,” she said. According to First Advantage, during January-March 2015, at least 8% of total candidates in New Delhi and 6% of Mumbai candidates it verified for companies had discrepancies in their academic records.

Krishnan said any attempt by the government to create a repository of information will “eliminate the risk of fraud to a large extent”.

The first government official cited above said there is a growing demand for verification of educational qualifications, and an Aadhaar-linked system will lead to the reduction of fraud.

Experts say that before the government goes public on such a move, it needs to ensure that the data storage is foolproof and issues of privacy are addressed.

“Privacy in India is certainly a concern and when you allow an employer to verify data, the authorities have to ensure that privacy of a student or job seeker is protected,” said Kalpesh Banker, managing partner of EduShine Advisory, an education consultancy. “If the question is, ‘Is the concept is good?’, then the answer is definitely yes.”

Prashant K. Nanda

8281 - Admission status of out-of-school kids still unclear - TNN

Admission status of out-of-school kids still unclear

Piyush Bhusari, TNN | Jul 14, 2015, 06.13AM IST

KOLHAPUR: Ten days after a survey on identifying out-of-school children was carried out across the state, the district primary education department and the civic administration are still unclear about the admission status of such kids.  Officials of both the departments told TOI that the number of students admitted till Monday is being reviewed and the process is still underway. The state government's notification had clearly stated that once the students are identified as out-of-school, they should be admitted in a week and their schooling must start within the stipulated time.  During the July 4 survey, as many as 493 out-of-school children were identified in the district, while the number of such kids in the city was 56.  The officers have already said the higher authorities are yet to give clear instructions on the students identified at madrassas. Their admissions have been put on hold.  Smita Gaud, district primary education officer, told TOI, "The department is not sure of the students' admission status. We are preparing a report in this regard. We have asked the officers concerned at the taluka level to provide the admission status report, which is likely to be generated in at least two-three days."  When asked if the identified students are being admitted in schools, the officer again talked about the report which will throw light on the scenario.  The state government's circular on May 20 regarding out-of-school children stated that the identified kids should be be given Aadhaar cards within eight days.  When asked about the status of Aadhaar cards, the officer seemed reluctant and said, "At present, we are not sure about it. We will have to take a look at the report."  An official of the KMC's education department said on the condition of anonymity that the work is still 'on' and the data regarding the admission status of 56 kids is not available.  Anuradha Bhosale, vice-chairman of city-based NGO Avani told TOI that the entire survey was a farce as proper efforts were not taken. "There are hundreds of out-of-school children in the city, whereas the officials claim to have found only 56 kids. The administration hardly seems concerned with the admission status of these children," she said.  Uttam Gurav, headmaster of Nehru Nagar School said, "From Nehru Nagar, not a single child has been identified as out-of-school. Besides, the school has also not received any query on admissions in such cases."  The survey was in the centre of a controversy after the state government decided to consider students studying in madrassas out-of-school.  The administration had appointed 7,161 survey officers, along with 383 zonal officers and 22 control room officers across the district, for the event.  The school education department had collaborated with the departments such as public health, revenue, labour, women and child welfare, minority affairs, tribal development and social welfare as well as the municipal authorities to ensure that all the aspects were covered.  The squads were asked to look after marketplaces, slums, bus stops, railway stations and traffic signals among other places and start registering details of these children. Once registered, every child was marked on the finger with indelible ink.

8204 - Kolhapur trips on Aadhaar programme deadline - TNN

Kolhapur trips on Aadhaar programme deadline

Piyush Bhusari, TNN | Jun 29, 2015, 02.08PM IST

KOLHAPUR: The primary education department in Kolhapur has admitted to its inability to meet the June 26 deadline set by the state's government for linking school students' admission registration numbers to Aadhar cards because of unavailability of machines. 

Officials in the department said the number of students, around 73,000, was too high as against the number of machines, around 80, made available for the drive and this difference has made implementation of the project difficult in the district. 

The Maharashtra government has decided to link school students' admission registration numbers to Aadhar card in order to effectively implement the Right to Education Act on the ground that this will facilitate tracking of a child in the education system. The linking will help the government verify whether students are enrolled in schools and parents can also be kept in the loop over their child's educational progress, a government resolution (GR) issued by the state said. 

Block education officers have been asked to compile data about the number of children with Aadhaar cards and forward those to respective district collectorates. The government has also asked the local administration to publicise the campaign. The RTE Act ensures that children in the 6-14 age group are not left out of the educational system. The GR said the biggest challenge to ensure success of the RTE Act is to bring non-school going children in the education fold. 

The department in Kolhapur had started with the elementary school students' Aadhaar card registration across the district in May. After a review meeting in the first week of May, district collector Amit Saini had granted 20 additional machines, which then went up to 80. The target was to cover 73,963 students. 

District primary education officer Smita Gaud said the target could not be achieved because the number of machines was too less to reach out to the potential destinations on time. Besides, the grouping of schools for the Aadhaar registration drive could also not be organized, she said. 

"The department does not have the number of students registered as part of the drive from May. We have asked the block development officers to revert to us within three days with the number. The department was willing to complete the drive on time, but inadequate machines and the holidays were a challenge," Gaud said. 

The preference to the enrolment of the pre-primary children's Aadhaar cards was also one of the factors leading to the poor response. "There is a meeting with the district collectorate on June 30, where we will discuss the current situation and ask the authorities concerned to provide us with the more machines to complete the drive," she added. 

The demand of more machines can, however, put the government notification useless, as according to it the drive was supposed to be over by June 26 because of low academic pressure and holidays till June 14. "If the department again organises such kind of a drive, when are we supposed to conduct classes? It will put an unnecessary burden on the teachers in the middle of the academic year," said a ZP school teacher. 

The review report prepared by the district primary education department, a copy of which is with the TOI, Kolhapur has 2.74 lakh students eligible for the cards, of whom 2.11 lakh students have been already enrolled with it and the department was suppose to get the remaining 73,963 students enrolled by June 26. 

Anuradha Bhosale, vice-chairman at Avani, a city-based non-governmental organisation working in the field of education, said, "The administration always plans big. But when it comes to implementation, it cannot even execute the basic plans. Aadhaar card is necessary and it will wed out the bogus students. The process should be completed at the earliest."

8155 - Civic body to involve school kids for Aadhaar-voter ID linking scheme - TNN

Civic body to involve school kids for Aadhaar-voter ID linking scheme

TNN | Jun 17, 2015, 05.13AM IST

KOLHAPUR: The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to ask school students to collect the voter ID and Aadhaar cards of their parents and submit it to the school authorities. The Election Commission has already asked the authorities concerned to start the process.

The Election Commission had anticipated that the urban voters will link these numbers on their own. However, the response has been far from encouraging.

Prashant Patil, sub-divisional officer of Karvir tehsil, on Tuesday held a meeting regarding the issue, which was attended by the KMC staff and representatives of various city-based schools.

Patil said, "We have decided to ask class IV school students to collect information such as Aadhaar card number, voter ID and cellphone numbers of their parents and other members of the family. The information can be collected on any paper and it has to be submitted to the schools."

The government-appointed officials from the election department will collect the data from the schools and start uploading the information on the website. The district election office is expecting some improvement in linking process in the urban areas. Going by the figures compiled on June 13, only 6% voters from the city areas have linked their voter IDs with Aadhaar numbers.

Deputy municipal commissioner Ashwini Waghmole said, "The drive will help the corporation as its election is just three months away. The linking process will automatically help us remove the double or duplicate names. In some cases, verification of some voters is yet to be done. We can easily find and ensure that the voters are still living on the said address."

When asked about families having more than one school-going child, Patil said, "We discussed the possibility during our meeting. Once a voter ID is linked with Aadhaar card, it will not accept any other new entry. It will reflect on our portal that the Aadhaar number is already linked with the voter ID. Hence, the data feeder can skip the name. I am sure such incidents will be limited as compared to the huge data that we will from next week."