In a bid to achieve the Aadhaar's enrolment target of 60 crore citizens by 2014, UIDAI is joining hands with Department of Posts (DoP) to launch its ambitious enrolment project with the help of over 5,000 post offices across the country.
"The enrolment project will be launched on July 19. We have an opportunity to use post offices for inclusive growth through this partnership. If we understand the road ahead, the post offices will be the centre for empowering people," a top telecom ministry official said.
The new partnership will add to the existing infrastructure of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has over one million enrolment centres in nine states.
UIDAI aims to leverage DoP's existing infrastructure to reach out to masses for providing 'Aadhaar' numbers. "DoP doesn't have to adopt camp-based model (setting up enrolment units in urban or rural areas), which otherwise is expensive. It can use DoP's infrastructure," the official added.
The tardy pace of implementing 'Aadhaar' enrolment project prompted UIDAI to forge partnership with DoP. Many vendors complained of state governments awarding bids to the lowest bidders.
The low bidding led to the pullout of many firms in the government's multi-crore citizen service centres scheme. "This delayed the process of Aadhaar enrolment," he said.
Another reason for UIDAI tying up with DoP is the problem of duplication of enrolments as multiple agencies were hired in one district or a block. One more glitch is the wrong entry of demographic data as was done in election card, he added.
"No enrolment agency is interested in correcting data entered wrongfully because they don't get money to correct the information," the source said.
The UIDAI aims at allotting the unique identification number to one billion people. Three crore people have been enrolled so far. A further one crore unique identification numbers are ready to be assigned.
As many as 18 lakh cards had already been issued. The UIDAI will issue 10 lakh unique identification numbers daily from this October.
For enrolment in Aadhaar, personal details such as name, address, date of birth and gender will be sought. Besides, applicant's photograph, impression of retina and thumb will also be recorded.
