‘Complete Aadhar enrolment in state by Dec, 2014’

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury/ Edited by Swetaparna Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, Nov 11:

With the Central government all set to roll out the UID linked Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for several schemes, including LPG, in eight districts in the state soon, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today said the enrolment process for Aadhar cards in these eight districts will be completed by March 2014 and in the whole of the state by December, 2014.

The Central government has identified eight districts – Cuttack, Puri, Bolangir, Khurdha, Bhadrak, Baleswar, Sonepur and Sundargarh – for implementation of the DBTL scheme. However, four districts – Cuttack, Puri, Khurdha and Bolangir – have been selected for rolling out the scheme in the first phase, which was originally supposed to be launched on November 1.

Recently, the state government requested the Petroleum Ministry to defer the launch citing that most people residing in the districts are yet to get their Aadhar cards, the means to get subsidy under DBTL.

“We have set a target to complete the enrolment process for Aadhar cards in the four districts by December this year while it will be completed in the other four districts by March, 2014. The entire state will be enrolled by December next year,” said Deputy Director General (DDG) of UIDAI, MVS Rami Reddy at a state level workshop on Aadhar based DBT here.

Informing that about 35% people have Aadhar cards in Odisha, Reddy said out of 4.19 crore population in the state, about 2.17 crore people have been enrolled to get Aadhar cards, 1.33 crore cards have already been generated and two crore are uploaded in the database. However, 35 lakh enrolments have been rejected following certain objections, he revealed.

The state government and UIDA have decided to open permanent enrolment stations on a priority basis in all blocks to cover the left out people across the state.

Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) UN Behera informed that about 29 schemes of state and Central government will be included in the DBT scheme in the coming days.

However, lack of awareness has confused people as to how to enrol themselves for the card. Even though the state government has entrusted enrolment of cards to government officials, the common people have been left in lurch. They are apprehensive of losing the benefit provided by the Centre, if not enrolled. The scheme was started at state secretariat from November 5.