In order to increase Aadhaar coverage of children up to 5 years of age, Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua on Wednesday directed that Aadhar enrolment of these children should also be done at Aam Aadmi clinics in the state. It was stated by the Chief Secretary Mr. Janjua while chairing the meeting of the UID implementation committee regarding the progress of various activities under the Aadhaar card project.
Mr. Janjua said that Punjab ranks fifth in India in terms of Aadhaar coverage. Now the focus is on building Aadhaar for children where the coverage is only 44 percent. He said that 580 Aam Aadmi Clinics have been opened by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to provide better health facilities to the residents of the state, in which a large number of people are getting their treatment.
Seeing the large number of patients coming to the clinic, it has now been decided to provide the facility of Aadhaar enrollment here also to increase the Aadhaar enrollment of children. The Staff at the clinic already have the tablets to undertake Aadhar enrolment.
The Chief Secretary also directed the Department of School Education and Social Security and Women and Child Development to speed up the Aadhaar process for children. He also directed the departments to start an awareness campaign regarding the updation of mobile, and residence address on the Aadhar card.
Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Gurkirat Kirpal Singh gave a detailed presentation of the Aadhaar project to the committee. He said that only 5-7 and 15-17 years mandatory biometric update facility is free. So the efforts are being made by registrar UID Punjab to get 100 percent biometric updates of children of this age.
Deputy Director General, Regional Office UIDAI Chandigarh Bhawna Garg said that the adult population has already been covered by Aadhaar. The main focus needs to be on children. Till September 14, 2023, any citizen, who has never updated his Aadhaar in the last ten years, can do online document updates in Aadhaar for free.
Prominent among others who were present in the meeting included Finance Commissioner Revenue K.A.P. Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary Social Justice and Empowerment Ramesh Kumar Ganta, Principal Secretary Planning Vikas Pratap, Secretary Local Government Ajoy Sharma, Director Governance Reforms Girish Dayalan and Special Secretary School Education Vinay Bublani.