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New Delhi: Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will Oct
20 launch the nationwide Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery to plug
loopholes in implementation of welfare schemes.
The applications will be launched from Dudu in Rajasthan, marking
the second anniversary of the Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI).
"This will lay the foundation for cash transfers... The prime
minister has already launched an architecture for the purpose,"
Nandan Nilekani, chairman of UIDAI, which gives the Aadhar
numbers, told reporters Friday.
"Aadhaar as the foundation of electronic transfer of benefits on
various social sector schemes should yield significant benefits,"
he said.
UIDAI director general R.S. Sharma said the initiative would cover
51 districts in the country by 2013.
Aadhaar-enabled applications will be used for making pension
payments, wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme, Public Distribution System and scholarship
payments, he said.
"The benefits range from better compliance management to reduced
leakages and increased efficiency and accountability in service
delivery," he said.
Sharma said pilots of Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery such as the
public distribution system in East Godavari district of Andhra
Pradesh, social security payment in Aurangabad in Maharashtra, LPG
cylinder delivery in Mysore in Karnataka, MGNREGS payments in
Ramgarh in Jharkhand and old-age pension payments in West Tripura
district will be telecast live Saturday.
On the occasion, the 21st crore Aadhaar number will also be handed
over, said Nilekani, adding that by 2014, around half of India's
population or 600 million citizens would have an Aadhar number.
Aadhar was launched in 2010 to provide an irrefutable proof of
identity to all citizens of India making it the world's largest
biometric-based identity database.
UIDAI has spent around Rs.2,000 crore so far on the project, said
Sharma.
Aadhaar is an online identity platform that can be accessed in
real-time for authenticating beneficiaries and adapted by various
user agencies.
The prime minister will also present Aadhaar Governance Awards and
Aadhaar Excellence Awards.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh
Ahluwalia, Minister of State for Planning, Science & Technology,
Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar and Minister of State for
Communications & Information Technology Sachin Pilot will also be
present.
Of the six states where the new services will be launched, Tripura
was the first to enrol over 90 percent of its 3.7-million
population in Aadhaar.
Tripura Gramin Bank too is the first regional rural bank in the
country to provide services based on Aadhaar, said an UIDAI
official in Agartala.
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