'Speed up tendering for Aadhaar'

Anup Mishra- news24online.com

Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Anoop Mishra has issued directives to UP government officials asking them to speed up the tendering process for appointment of enrolment agencies to carry out aadhaar enrolment under the unique identification project.

Though the process of Aadhaar number disbursal by non-state registrars has already begun in UP, the state government, despite having entered into an MoU with UIDAI in August 2010, and appointing the Department of Food and Civil Supplies as state government registrar, has not completed all operational formalities necessary to begin the enrolment process. A senior bureaucrat confirmed, "The government is eager to complete the formalities. The tendering process will be done soon."

In a meeting of UIDAI authorities with the UP Chief Secretary Anoop Mishra, on Tuesday, Mishra directed department officials to begin the necessary tendering process "as soon as possible.'' A UIDAI official in Lucknow confirmed, "Yes, in the meeting of UIDAI officials with the chief secretary, officials have been directed to expedite the process. A deadline for when this must be done by, however, has not been identified.''

In UP, Aadhaar numbers are currently being issued by three non-state registrars — State Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce. However, with nonstate registrars looking to tap only 10% of the state's total population, the bulk of the enrolment process will be undertaken by the state government, which will, in turn, appoint enrolling agencies to collect the demographic and biometric data from applicants. Earlier, while talking to TOI, Alok Chopra, additional director general, UIDAI, said, "The process has just begun in UP. Once the state government starts the enrolment process, permanent enrolment centres will be set up across the city and state to enrol people. No one needs to be worried about missing the bus.'' In Lucknow, aadhaar numbers are being issued by Smartchip Limited (SL), on behalf of SBI acting as Central Registrar. For the enrolment process, SL will conduct an Inform, Educate and Communicate (IEC) campaign in each of the ward areas, where the enrolment process is being conducted.

In order to receive the unique ID number, a person must be a resident of India. The state government has issued a list of documents that can be produced for proof of identity and residence. However, for those who have no documents, the government has appointed verifiers for different areas who can vouch for the person as being a resident of the area. The UID will collect only biometric and demographic information about an individual and will not ask for information on caste, religion or language.

Residents will be photographed, their fingerprints taken and irises scanned. Aadhaar numbers will be issued within a month of the processes being completed. Further to this, applicants will receive a letter from UIDAI, bearing the candidate's Aadhaar number and other details, as declared to the UID authorities.

While the UID will not replace other identification documents, residents have the option to link it to their bank accounts.At last count, the nonstate registrars, through their enrolment agencies had issued 76,290 Aadhaar numbers in Uttar Pradesh. The highest numbers were recorded in Unnao (at 14,912), while the lowest numbers were recorded in Ballia (1532). In Lucknow, a total of 7035 aadhar numbers have been generated so far. Currently, SBI is conducting an enrolment drive in 12 districts, Central Bank of India in five and Oriental Bank of Commerce in two districts of Uttar Pradesh.

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