Aadhaar to cover State in 6 months

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is all set to cover the entire State under the Aadhaar scheme in the next six to nine months.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in LPG subsidy, UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani said on Saturday that the State government and the Authority would launch a massive enrolment drive in the next few months.

“We have currently enrolled close to 40 crore people and 35 crore Aadhaar cards have already been distributed. We intend to cover the entire State with the help of the government machinery,” he said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the government would provide enough manpower to achieve 100 per cent enrolment.

Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies, Dinesh Gundurao, said his department was ready to explore the possibility of linking the scheme to provide rice at Re one per kg to Aadhaar cards.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Veerappa Moily, rubbished allegations that the hike in prices of petrol and diesel was deferred for three months due to elections in Karnataka.

“There is no political motive in this. The prices of petrol have already been de-regulated and it is almost the same with diesel. We have given power to the oil companies to keep the fluctuating market rates in mind, before suggesting a hike,” he said. According to Moily, with the depreciation of the rupee, the hike in petroleum prices was inevitable.

On the extension of JnNURM scheme to other parts of Karnataka, Moily said the Centre would soon extend a ‘modified’ version of the scheme to Tumkur and Hubli-Dharwad.

How DBT works for LPG subsidy

* Every citizen has to enrol his/her name under Aadhaar scheme to get a number

* The Aadhaar number has to be then linked to the bank account of the card holder, by asking the bank to link it or by opening a fresh account with the Aadhaar number.
Consumers can also fill up a form available with the LPG distributors, which includes their bank account number, Aadhaar number and deposit it in the drop boxes placed at the distributor’s premises/select petrol pump outlets

*  Provide the Aadhaar number to the LPG distributor for linking it to the LPG consumer number

* After the above three steps, consumers can check on http://petroleum.nic.in/dbtl, whether their Aadhaar number has been linked to LPG consumer number/bank account or visit the transparency portal of the oil marketing companies to check the same.

* Once it is confirmed that Aadhaar number is linked to both the LPG consumer number and bank account, subsidy will start coming into the bank account.