Nine days after the Aadhaar project or Unique identification (UID) was flagged off in the city, the first operational enrollment centre fails to achieve its estimated target.
The only UID operational centre in the city is in Walkeshwar. The centre has enrolled less than one fourth of the expected number.
The UID exercise started on January 26 and only 1,700 people have been enrolled.
The enrolled population stands at meagre 188 people per day. Records state that the highest number of people to be enrolled on a day stands at 250. The administration intends to establish a total of 145 centres. Officials say that one centre will cater to a lakh people.
But poor rate of enrollment has left the vendors of the UID worried about rolling out the bio-metric database for the people on time.
The enrollment for UID will be on till March 2011.
Officials claim that poor awareness can be one of the reasons behind the poor rate of enrollment. “Any citizen irrespective of their domicile and state can come to their nearest centre for enrollment.
The citizens have to fill and submit two forms for the procedure.
One is the Know your resident (KYR) form and the other Know your resident+ form has to be submitted with the required documents,” said Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner.
On Thursday, eight more UID centres opened their doors in the city and there will be 145 centres in total. Citizens have to submit proof of identity, address and date of birth. “After verifying the documents, imprints of all the ten fingers are taken and the impression of the iris is also recorded. The process takes only 10 minutes. After this an enrollment receipt is given to the people,” an operator at the centre explained.
People will be given a token that will specify the time that will be required to come to the centre, after the verification of documents. Moreover, citizen can call 108, the BMC helpline to inquire about their nearest UID centre. Official also state that the UID is mandatory for all citizens. “It is an Indian citizenship card for everyone. The card is a form of smart card which will give a 12 number unique passcode to every Indian enabling him to avail public schemes.”
The BMC is also leaving no stone unturned to make those without any shelter a part of the national population registry (NPR) or to enable their enrolment for the UID.
They have planned a night long survey for counting the homeless in the city and other elaborate steps to give them a bio-metric identity. The survey for the homeless will be carried out on February 28.
