UIDAI officials in Pune to ease students Aadhaar card woes

UIDAI officials Tej Gupta from Delhi and Aparna Mittal from Mumbai will be gathering feedback on registrations from the district administration, and will also be conducting orientation sessions and overseeing implementation of the Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) through Aadhaar from March 1.u00a0

"The UIDAI officials are in the city to conduct a special meeting to gather feedback on preparations in Pune district, as well as to give training on how to implement the DCT," said Deputy Collector Apoorva Wankhede, the concerned authority of DCT.

Problem solved: People wait their turn at an UID centre. File Pic

Wankhede had asked all the concerned government departments yesterday to immediately submit all details for Aadhaar registrations so that she could present it to the visiting UIDAI officials during today's scheduled meeting.u00a0

"Out of the 13 schemes, which are to be linked to Aadhaar from March 1, around 50 per cent beneficiaries either have UID number or have applied for the same and have an Aadhaar Enrolment Identification Number (EID). The district administration has already directed all concerned departments to speed up the registration drive to cover all beneficiaries at the earliest," Wankhede said.

MiD DAY reported yesterday that out of a total of 76,000 beneficiaries of the various scholarship schemes, only 20,000 students have registered for UID cards. Under the ‘Janani Suraksha Yojana' scheme, out of 5,500 beneficiaries in the district, only 2,500 have registered their names for Aadhaar. Under the scheme for persons with permanent disabilities, only 1,657 of 5,100 beneficiaries across the district have registered Aadhaar numbers to avail DCT from March 1.

"District Collector Vikas Deshmukh spoke to PMC Commissioner Mahesh Pathak on Tuesday asking him to direct the concerned authorities to speed up work," Wankhede said.

Meanwhile, staffs of the Social Welfare Department, who are forwarding UID numbers of applicants eligible for SC-OBC scholarships to the district administration, are facing problems as many students are deliberately enrolling fake UID numbers to submit scholarship forms in the hopes of availing benefits.

"We have an online system for students to submit scholarship forms. As the DCT is set to launch in the district on March 1, we have are ensuring that the server does not accept forms without UID number. As almost 50,000 students still do not have Aadhaar cards, many are filling forms and entering fake numbers hoping that their form will be accepted. This is just increasing our work and we have other the additional task to ensure that forms with fake numbers are rejected," said an official on condition of anonymity.

In the backdrop of the ongoing chaos related to Aadhaar cards, District Collector Vikas Deshmukh appealed to students not to panic. He added that if they did not get their Aadhaar cards before March 1, they would still be able to get their scholarship money by cheque. u00a0

15 more colleges to be included
With the fast approaching deadline to register all scheme beneficiaries within the next three weeks weighing heavy on the mind, the PMC has increased efforts to install more UID kits at colleges and other institutes in the city.u00a0"Till now, we have installed 18 UID kits in 18 institutes, including nine colleges in the city. Now, we have decided to increase the number and in next two days, we will install UID kits in another 15 colleges. We have already directed ward officers to return UID kits," said Mangesh Joshi, deputy commissioner, PMC.u00a0