Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena chaired a meeting to review Aadhaar progress with all the departmental heads of the state government and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), here today. The face authentication in public distribution system was launched by the Chief Secretary in presence of Deputy Director General, UIDAI Dhiraj Sarin and other Secretaries.
Emphasizing the importance of achieving hundred percent Aadhaar saturation across Himachal Pradesh, all the departments including DDT&G, Postal department and School education were directed to activate all Aadhaar enrollment kits at the earliest and ensure optimal utilization of available resources.
It was informed that Himachal Pradesh is leading the country in terms of Aadhaar generation of the children below five years. The national average is 39 percent whereas the State has achieved 56 percent coverage.
The State has made significant progress over the last three months and the pendency of mandatory biometric update has decreased from 5.5 lakh to 4.75 lakh. It was also informed that the Department of Digital Technology & Governance in collaboration with Education department has arranged multiple camps in the schools to cover the mandatory biometric updates.
The Chief Secretary directed to cover private schools as well to reduce the pendency of mandatory biometric update, which were to be carried out on attaining the age of 5 and 15 years. He also emphasized on popularization of Aadhaar related services and to carry awareness campaign through school education department to encourage parents and guardians for mandatory biometric update of their children.
He further directed to deploy Aadhaar kits at immunization centers to cover Aadhaar enrolment of 0-5 age group. The Health department, department of Digital Technology & Governance and India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) would facilitate Aadhaar enrollment for children below five years, ensuring their complete coverage.
Commodore (IN) Dhiraj Sareen, DDG, UIDAI Regional Office, Chandigarh highlighted for scaling of Aadhaar authentication in various departments of the state government and also mentioned the latest amendments in Aadhaar SWIK (Social, Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) rules wherein now private entities such as hotels, hospitals, travel agencies could also use Aadhaar based authentication subject to approval by the concerned department of the State.
He highlighted the requirement for digitization of documents used in Aadhaar updation, issued by the state government. The Chief Secretary also directed all the departments to ensure Aadhaar based authentication of beneficiaries for various services and digitization of documents released by the state government.