Hyderabad, January 24: Despite being the first state to launch enrolments for the Centre’s flagship Aadhaar project, Andhra Pradesh is making slow progress in issuing the unique identification (UID) numbers to its denizens. As a result, the deadline for covering seven districts in the state has been extended from March 31 to June 30.
The enrolments for the Aadhaar project were launched in October last year. Though about 3.11 crore denizens residing in seven districts were supposed to be covered by March 31, sources said that less than 10 per cent of these applications had been processed by December end.
Unlike the popular perception, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will not issue any cards but will only give a UID number to each individual. Initially the state government was scheduled to issue these UID numbers to people in seven districts of Hyderabad (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation), Rangareddy, Adilabad, Srikakulam, East Godavari, Anantapur and Chittoor during the first phase.
But there was delay in finalising the tenders for selecting agencies which collect the demographic and biometric data of the applicants. The government called for tenders twice in a bid to decrease the expenditure that led to controversies with the political parties suspecting irregularities in finalisation of tenders. Later, there were complaints that the number of Designated Photography Location (DPL) centres was very less. Though it picked up soon, Andhra Praesh was left behind by neighbouring states like Karnataka.
While the officials in the Civil Supplies department cite various reasons for the delay, the Aadhaar project authorities claim that Andhra Pradesh is now picking up over its neighbouring states.
“There were some initial hiccups but there is good progress. We have extended our deadline to June 30 against March 31 as announced earlier and are hopeful that all seven districts will be covered,” said VS Bhaskar, deputy director general of the UIDAI Regional Office in Hyderabad.
The Civil Supplies department requested the extension of deadline as the collection of the data of families and integration of information under Aadhaar is a very comprehensive activity comprising collection of biometric data like iris scan, finger prints and thumbnail photo of every individual.
Further, the verification of demographic data like name, address and other details is also a time consuming process. Officials said that arrangements are being made to initiate the UIDAI project in the remaining 16 districts in the next four-five months.
–Agencies