Complete Aadhaar works by March next year: CM

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday directed the departments concerned to complete the work on Aadhaar cards in all the 23 districts by the end of March, 2012 ‘at any cost’.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to complete the work taken up in the seven districts in the first phase at the earliest.

Pointing out that the Aadhaar cards will be made mandatory for delivery of Government benefits such as ration, pensions, Indiramma housing etc, Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the state government will provide all assistance and support for completion of issue of Aadhaar cards in the State on schedule.

He had earlier reviewed the progress of issue of Aadhaar cards and overview of UID Project and the current status with Minister and officials concerned.

Officials explained to the Chief Minister the key decisions taken at the UID meetings held on February 18 and May 15, 2010 and April 27, 2011.

The First Empowered Committee meeting held on August 5, 2010 approved 3 crore enrolments in seven districts, Food and Civil Supplies and Rural Development Departments were nominated as Registrars.

The seven districts are Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Chittoor, Anantapur, East Godavari, Adilabad and Srikakulam.

As far as Phase I is concerned, Food and Civil Supplies Department is the Registrar.

The State Government issued the relevant G.O.s in this regard. As far as UID Project is concerned, enrolments began first in Andhra Pradesh in Kothapalem village, Renigunta Mandal, Chittoor District and the State leads in number of enrolments (1.3 crore) and in number of Aadhaars generated (26 lakh).

The Maheswaram Mandal was saturated and the distribution of smart cards was launched by the Chief Minister.

As per 13th Finance Commission recommendations, Rs 100 is being given for enrolment as compensation for losing the day's wages.

A total of Rs 10 crore is available for ICT upgradation and it covers 9 departments of Civil Supplies, Women & Child Welfare, Rural Development, Social Welfare, Labour, Tribal Welfare, Housing, Minority Welfare and Agriculture for digitisation of data, hiring of consultants, software and hardware.

The UIDAI has adopted the strategy of Multi Registrar Model as approved by the Union Cabinet for achieving the mandate of issuing Aadhaar numbers to all the residents of the country.

The Multi Registrar Model provides the residents with choice to enrol at points operated by different Registrars based on their convenience. The efforts of State Government/Union Territories will be supplemented and complemented by other Registrars like Banks, India Post etc.

The Regional Office of UIDAI will facilitate coordination between registrars in general and the State Governments and other Registrars in particular.

Current and Potential Registrars for the UID Projects in AP are Food and Civil Supplies Department - 7 Districts, SBI - 12 Districts in FI Villages, SBH, India Post - to commence in 317 Centres, Central Bank of India, Corporate Bank, Canara Bank and NSDL - one Centre in Penderghast Road, Secunderabad.

The Chief Minister told the officials that complete coordination is required among the Registrars to ensure quick coverage of the residents for the UID project, to avoid overlap, legal disputes, to facilitate data sharing and collection of KYR (Know Your Resident) required by the State Government and to facilitate proper verification of documents and a functional system of Introducers.

The Aadhaar Governance Award (AGA) instituted is to acknowledge, recognise and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by District Collectors annually in using the Aadhaar number to improve service delivery in their respective districts for more transparent, efficient and effective governance, the winning nominations will receive a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh, followed by Rs 2 lakh for the second place and Rs 1 lakh for the third place and this has been communicated by the Planning Department to all the District Collectors.

Officials explained to the Chief Minister the progress of the Phase I and as on June 4, 2011, total enrolments completed are 117 lakh, Aadhaar Numbers generated were 28 lakh and the Civil Supplies Department has taken up the matter to resolve the pending enrolment which have got the Aadhaar numbers.

As far as saturated Mandals are concerned, it is Maheswaram in Ranga Reddy, 25 out of 63 in Anantapur, 17 out of 58 Mandals in East Godavari, 7 out of 38 in Srikakulam, 9 out of 52 Mandals in Adilabad and 13 out of 66 Mandals in Chittoor.

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Sreedhar Babu, Chief Secretary, S V Prasad, Special Chief Secretary to CM, J Satyanarayana, Special Chief Secretary, Planning, SP Tucker, Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, Raymond Peter, Principal Secretary, Infrastructure and Investments, Ajay Mishra, Commissioner, Civil Supplies, Harpreet Singh, Deputy Director General, UIDAI, V.S.Bhaskar, Secretary, Finance, T Satyanarayana, Registrar General, Y Anuradha, Secretary to Chief Minister, KS Jawahar Reddy, Special Secretary to Chief Minister SS Rawat, Additional Secretary to Chief Minister, Sreedhar and other officials attended the meeting.