Northern region achieves 100% Aadhaar saturation, says UIDAI

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, December 19

The Chandigarh regional office (RO) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has become the first RO in the country to achieve 100% Aadhaar saturation as per estimated population of 2015 in the region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

Haryana achieved saturation on September 26 followed by Punjab on October 17, Chandigarh on November 29 and Himachal Pradesh on December 8, 2016.

The Central government has established eight ROs across the country to look after Aadhaar-related activities. These are at Chandigarh, Delhi, Lucknow, Ranchi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Guwahati. In addition to Northern region, Delhi and Telengana are the two other states where 100% Aadhaar generation against estimated population of 2015 has been achieved.

“We have achieved 100% Aadhaar saturation in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and UT Chandigarh as per the total estimated population of 2015, calculated on the basis of 2011 census. Our coverage in the age group of 18 years and above is beyond 100% while in the age group of 0-18 years, it is low. So, now the efforts are being made to achieve near universal enrolment for children in the age group 0 to 18 years through schools, anganwadis, creches, kindergartens, hospitals etc,” said Ram Subhag Singh, Deputy Director General, UIDAI.

“For this purpose, Aadhaar-Linked Birth Registration (ALBR) has been launched in Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh. Under this scheme, staff members of hospitals are trained and certified to work as Aadhaar operators. Tablets are deployed in government as well as private hospitals to cover all newborn babies,” he said. He said for newborns, biometric update will be done on attaining the age of 5 years and 15 years.

He further stated that the states in northern region are in the process of setting up Permanent Enrolment Centres in government schools to facilitate enrolment.

The states and UTs were encouraged to procure their own Aadhaar Enrolment kits (ECMP Kit) & tablets which helped them to establish Permanent Enrolment Centres in the region. He said, “475 kits and 890 tablets were procured by Haryana, 165 kits, 50 biometric kits and 800 tablets by Himachal Pradesh, 8 kits and 33 tablets by UT Chandigarh.”