Centre plans to set up Aadhaar counters at hospitals

Citing a captive base to enrol citizens into Aadhaar, the Centre has decided to open counters at hospitals in Bangalore for the benefit of lower middle class and the poor who come for treatment.

On a pilot basis, it has been decided to open the counters at Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research and Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in the next few days.

According to Aadhaar project Special Officer Dr R Vishal the scheme will be implemented with two machines in each of the hospitals for dispensing and accepting the Aadhaar applications.

Up for popularity

“These machines will be setup shortly and evaluated for popularity. Thereon, we will look at future course of action,” he said.

With each hospital having staff strength of no less than 1,000 people, apart from floating population of patients and their relatives, the special officer is looking at increasing the rate of enrolment under Aadhaar project.

Helpful

“The Aadhaar machines will be helpful in reaching out to poor patients and their relatives who come from far-off places for treatment,” he added. It is hoped that distribution of Aadhaar numbers will help poor patients who arrive from distant places. “Once application is accepted, cards will be sent to their postal address,” he said.

It is estimated that Aadhaar form dispension machines are likely to increase by 400 to 600 across the City in various locations.