Tied to census, Aadhaar enrolment stands still in UP

The Government of India wants to introduce Aadhaar-linked cash transfers, but the process of UID enrolment has been suspended in Uttar Pradesh for almost a year.

The last enrolment of UID that happened in the state was in January-February, during the first phase of the Aadhaar scheme. No one is sure when the process will resume.

The Government of India had decided that, in the second phase of the scheme in Uttar Pradesh, the collection of biometric data for Aadhar numbers will be done by the Directorate of Census rather than the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The work of UID will begin along with the last phase of data collection of the National Population Register (NPR) done by the census directorate.

"Because we had to collect biometric data for NPR and the same data was needed for UID, the Government of India decided that the data collection for UID will also be done by Directorate of Census," said Neena Sharma, Director, Census Operations, Uttar Pradesh. However, the process could start only when the Census directorate completed digitising the NPR data collected in the first phase, said Sharma.

"The digitisation is now complete and we are ready to flag off the next phase of NPR very soon," she said, refusing to give a date for kick-starting the programme. She said the date will be decided by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.

In the first phase, the UIDAI had enrolled around 1 crore UID numbers across 59 districts of Uttar Pradesh, said C S Mishra, Assistant Director General, UIDAI, Uttar Pradesh. "The last Aadhaar enrolment was done in the state in January-February 2012. After that, for about four to five months, the UIDAI took a break to sort out the challenges and software issues based on the experience of phase one. The second phase began in August in 18 states, where the UIDAI was supposed to make the cards. In Uttar Pradesh, however, the data is to be collected by the census directorate," said Mishra.

... contd.

ALSO READ

SHO suspended for using 'foul language' against Akhilesh, Mulayam

BJP leader accused of killing woman, on the run

In Rae Bareli, Priyanka Gandhi tells Congress workers to be 'visible among public'

'Shiv Sena' activists thrash 'couples' during protest against Valentine's Day