Chief Secretary, B B. Vyas reviewed the progress of Aadhar enrolment in J&K in a meeting held today at Civil Secretariat, Jammu.Deputy Director General, UIDAI participated through video conference from Chandigarh. The meeting was attended by Chief Post Master General, J&K, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Commissioner/Secretary, GAD, Commissioner/Secretary Social Welfare Department, Secretary, School Education Department, Secretary, Information Technology Department; Project Director SSA, Mission Director, ICDS; representatives of Registrar General of India, SLBC and other Senior Officers. Secretary, Information Technology Department Saugat Biswas, while making a power point presentation on the status and progress of Aadhar enrolment in J&K apprised that during the last six months 11,04,786 (Eleven lac) Aadhar enrolment has been done in J&K under the aegis of the Information Technology Department. For this purpose, around 350 machines had been deployed at various locations in all the Districts of the State. The Department had contracted the work to the Electronic Corporation of India ltd. (a public sector undertaking of the Government of India).
It was informed that the Aadhar enrolment which is being done on a continuous basis has reached 1.09 Crores and the Aadhar Cards of 97 lac residents have been generated so far. This is against a total population of 1.25 Crore as per 2011 census. With the shifting of Aadhar regime from Registrar General of India to the State Government under the UIDAI, the Aadhar enrolment was affected, however with the continuous monitoring and timely removal of the bottlenecks wherever required the feat has been achieved. In order to universalize the Aadhar in J&K, the UIDAI has also appointed Project Director, SSA, and Mission Director ICDS as Registrars for Aadhar enrolment in the Schools and Aanganwadi centers respectively. In the last review taken by the Chief Secretary, it was decided that 100 enrolment centres shall be opened in Schools by the Project Director, SSA. It was apprised that the machines for these centres have been procured and distributed in the designated schools and out of those 14 machines have already started enrolment in the Schools. Deputy Director General, UIDAI apprised that 250 school education staff have already been trained for this purpose and training of another 400 school education staff shall be conducted shortly.
While reviewing the position, Chief Secretary directed that all the 100 machines should be deployed along with other requisite hardware within a week’s time. Besides it was also decided that additional 100 machines shall also be procured by the Project Director, SSA for which the requisite funds shall be provided by the UIDAI. The Chief Secretary, directed that the Aadhar enrolment of Aanganwari beneficiaries (age 0-5), and School students (age 6-18), be done on priority and special emphasis be accorded to the enrolment of the girl child. 410 Aanganwadi workers have also been trained for undertaking Aadhar enrolment by the UIDAI till now.Further, the Government of India has also issued directions to the Post Offices and Banks to start Aadhar enrolment in J&K for which the UIDAI has also allotted separate Registrar Code to these institutions. Despite this, the Aadhar enrolment in the Post Offices was held up because of procedural issues which were resolved in today’s meeting. The Secretary Information Technology Department proposed a draft Standard Operating Procedure for Aadhar enrolment to be done by the Post Offices and all other Registrars, which was considered in the meeting. The proposed procedure would come into effect in all Aadhar enrolment centers shortly and shall further make the process applicant friendly.The Vice President, J&K Bank, representative of the SLBC apprised that Aadhar enrolment in 64 Bank Branches have already been started and another 20 will start within a few days. The Chief Secretary requested the bank to consider opening of another 40 Aadhar enrolment centers in equal number of Branches of the J&K Bank. He also directed that the non-performing banks, who have been accorded the mandate must start enrolment immediately.The Aadhar enrolment shall benefit the general populace immensely as the Government of India has linked benefits of various schemes of the government with the Aadhar number of the beneficiaries.