UIDAI likely to start enrolment in more states

The government is likely to allow on Thursday the Unique identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to start enrolments in areas other than the 18 states and Union Territories allocated to it for the purpose.

According to an official source, the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI will discuss the proposal of the Planning Commission to allow UIDAI to start enrolments in states and UTs which were not part of its mandated operations. The commission's proposal is based on the view that this is required to speed the collection of biometrics details of residents and for issuing Aadhaar numbers, as well as national multi-purpose identity cards (NMIC).

The government wants to use Aadhaar and NMIC for its scheme of Direct Benefits Transfer, through which beneficiaries' accounts are directly credited for payment of pension, scholarships and other subsidies.

"The Commission discussed the proposal with Registrar General of India (RGI) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. They have agreed that UIDAI can be allowed to enrol in some states where they are collecting biometrics details of resident, to speed up enrolments," he said.

At present RGI is working on a project called National Population Register (NPR) which is a digital database of residents of the country with their biometrics details.

At present UIDAI has issued 56 crore Aadhaar cards to residents against the mandated 60 crore so far whereas under NPR, RGI has enrolled around 14 crore.

As per an arrangement worked out in January 2012, UIDAI was asked to enrol 60 crore residents, while RGI was to enrol the remaining 61 crore under NPR to collect biometric data.

Using the biometrics data of the entire population, UIDAI is to issue Aadhaar numbers and RGI is to issue NMICs to all residents. According to an official, UIDAI can be allowed to enrol in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh where enrolments were slow under NPR project.

The states and union territories where RGI is enrolling residents and collecting their biometrics details under NPR are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep. RGI is also enrolling residents in Udupi, Gadag, Uttara Kannada, Haveri, Davangere, Bangalore rural, Chikkabalapur and Kodagu districts of Karnataka.

UIDAI has been mandated to enroll residents in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tripura.