Lack of trained staff,infrastructure woes pull back UID project in city

Four vendors have been chosen in the city to set up centres at specific spots provided by the civic administration. The vendors are supposed to put the required machines for iris identification and fingerprint impressions.

“So far most centres have only one or two biometric machines instead of having the mandatory five machines,” said A N Khaire,Deputy Municipal Commissioner Zone 6.

Milind Sawant,Deputy Municipal Commissioner,Zone 1,said,“The activity from the vendor’s side is very slow and the project might miss the set target.” The administration is looking at March 2012 deadline for the project in Mumbai.

The UID excercise started on January 26 and by March next year the Centre plans to give UIDs to approximately 1.3 crore people of Mumbai.

While some civic officials claim that poor infrastructure and insufficient machines result in long queues that discourage citizens,others blame the slow start on lack of awareness about the issue.

“The BMC has to provide officials at the ward level to verify information. As and when more officials are required the civic administration will provide manpower,” said Manisha Mhaiskar,Additional Municipal Commissioner. According to a senior official with the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority),“The process to enroll people in UID is slow as there are not adequare trained staff to do so. It is taking time to train the staff and we are planning to make all the planned 150 centres operational by March 5.”