The Centre has asked Karnataka and 15 other states to complete Aadhaar enrollment of school children by August 31 and submit the data to ensure serving of the mid-day meal to them "in a seamless manner."
This comes as the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry observed that many of these 16 States were lagging far behind in completion of the task, with Nagaland having enrolled just 15 percent of 1,59,449 students to Aadhaar.
In Karnataka, only 70 percent of the total number of students have so far been enrolled to Aaadhar. A total of 49,10,765 students enrolled in the Government schools in the State.
“The stipulated date for completing 100% Aadhaar enrollment is August 31, 2017. I earnestly suggest the Aadhaar enrollment campaign be given an added thrust by the Government of Karnataka in a time bound manner,” school education department secretary of the HRD Ministry Anil Swarup stated in his letter to Karnataka Chief Secretary Subhash C Khuntia.
Swarup urged Khuntia to instruct the authorities concerned in the State to complete the Aadhaar enrollment of “all school children” by the date stipulated.
He also urged Khuntia to “personally” monitor the exercise.
“A weekly progress report for achieving 100% Aadhar enrollment may kindly be submitted to this department (HRD Ministry). The enrollment of children under Aadhaar would enable us to eliminate the proxy enrollment and provide the benefits of mid-day meal scheme to the deserving children in a seamless manner,” Swarup added.
The HRD Ministry's School Education Department Secretary wrote an almost similar letter to the officials of other 15 states.
As per date with the Ministry, just 23% of the total school students have been enrolled to Aaadhar in Andhra Pradesh, 26% in Uttar Pradesh, 28% Odisha, 42% in Rajasthan, 61% in Madhya Pradesh and 63% in Bihar.
West Bengal Government has not shared any update on the Aadhaar enrollment of school students despite HRD Ministry's “repeated requests and reminders,” an official said.
Published 13 July 2017, 16:31 IST