Permanent Aadhaar enrolment centres across State soon

Unique Identification Authority of India and e-Governance departments are working together to convert the 1,000-odd BangaloreOne, KarnatakaOne, Nada Kacheri and gram panchayat centres into permanent Aadhaar enrolment centres.

According to Rathan Kelkar, Chief Executive Officer, e-Governance Department, these centres, at a later stage, would act as a common data verification centre for government departments.

“The Union government has sanctioned Rs 138 crore for the project under the 13th Finance Commission. These centres may be a reality by September-end,” Kelkar told Deccan Herald.  The proposal is now awaiting approval from the State government.

UIDAI Deputy Director General Ashok Dalwai said that the proposed centres require enrolment kits, which cost Rs 1.5 lakh each.

“An enrolment kit consists of fingerprint, iris scanners and laptops. In addition, we also need authorised operators. It is yet to be decided whether we should hire staff or train the existing personnel,” Dalwai said.

He said that of the around six crore people in Karnataka, more than 4.5 crore have enrolled themselves for Aadhaar and the proposed permanent centres would help in increasing the enrolment.

Meanwhile, the contract of the e-Governance department with the UIDAI for working as an enrolment agency expired in September 2013.

A final decision on renewing the contract is yet to be taken. However, the services of other institutions such as nationalised banks and private agencies would be used for enrolments.

Data-sharing

The UIDAI may share its enrolment data with the office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India for issuing Citizenship Card to Indians.

Following the announcement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, a senior UIDAI official said meetings had been held with the Registrar General of India and UIDAI in this regard.

So far, the UIDAI has enrolled over 65 crore Indians and will enrol another 35 crore in Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Bihar by September, 2014.

“Since we have so much data, it is being contemplated that all this data be shared with the registrar, who will link it with their door-to-door census data to know the genuine Indian residents. This will help in issuing citizenship cards without hassles,” the official explained.