Banks assure UIDAI of meeting stipulated 10% enrolment centre target by Dec

Banks have assured the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that they will be able to open, by December-end, Aadhaar enrolment and updation centres in the stipulated 10 per cent of the branches.

The deadline for reaching the 10 per cent target was October 31. But only a fraction of the bank branches - a little over 2,600 on an 'active' basis out of stipulated 15,000 branches that are required to do so - have been armed with Aadhaar enrolment and updation facility, so far.

"The statutory deadline has already passed...Banks have assured us now that by December end, they will have enrolment centres in the 10 per cent of their branches as required by UIDAI," Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of the Aadhaar-issuing body told PTI.

On whether the banks would be asked to cough up penalty for not adhering to the deadline, Pandey said: "We will work that out."

"We will have to hear them...under what circumstances they could not do this (meet the targets) and then come to a judicious view. Let us wait till December end and thereafter we will figure out," he said.

The current deadline for the banks to link customers' accounts to their Aadhaar is December 31, 2017.

The Bank Aadhaar Kendras are being set up with a view to make the Aadhaar verification process of bank accounts convenient for people and also to have more Aadhaar centres across the country that can cater to enrolment and updation requirements of people.

According to one estimate, updation and enrolment of Aadhaar during the course of a year, runs into crore.

As per UIDAI stipulation, 43 private and public sector banks have to open Aadhaar enrolment and updation centres in 15,315 branches.