Bangalore’s New Year date with Aadhaar put off

The 12-digit Aadhaar number will miss its New Year date with Bangaloreans as enrolment for the unique identification number (UID) in the IT city has been put off for a month.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), along with the state e-governance department which set January 1, 2011 as the date for rolling out the project in Bangalore, has now decided to postpone it till the end of January 2011.

UIDAI deputy director general, Ashok Dalwai, told DNA that plans to kick-start enrolment for Aadhaar in Bangalore from January 1 next year had been put off as tenders to shortlist the service providers for the project are yet to be finalised.

“The Request for Proposal (RFP) is still under way and will be out only by December end. Following this, the tenders will be floated and service providers will be finalised, which means that enrolment in Bangalore might happen only by January-end,” Dalwai said.

The UIDAI and e-governance department had announced that Bangalore would be the next stop for enrolling residents for the Aadhaar numbers after Mysore and Tumkur districts, from where the project commenced in Karnataka.

In Bangalore, officials had planned to start the enrolment in the BangaloreOne centres wherein residents — upon producing proof of identity documents like passport, PAN card etc — would have to get their biometric data like iris identification and fingerprints and photographs taken. Two weeks later, the residents would be given their 12-digit Aadhaar number.

After the project rolled out in Mysore and Tumkur in October 2010, UIDAI officials had said that in Karnataka 6.2 crore residents would be issued identification numbers by December 31, 2011.

When asked if the delay in implementing the project would result in the state missing the December 31, 2011 deadline, Dalwai said enrolment would commence soon.