As only 5,041 beneficiaries have received Aadhaar cards so far, the district UID scheme department has Herculean task on its hands of issuing cards to the rest amongst originally targeted 76,366 people by March 1
Despite Central Government’s directive to complete the process of issuing Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar cards to beneficiaries of various government schemes before March 1, only 5,041 of the 76,366-targetted persons have received the card from the district UID scheme department so far.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Centre had stressed for speedy work because the government transfers money directly into the bank account of the beneficiary. For such a process, it is mandatory for one to posses UID/Aadhaar card. However, with just 43 days in hand, the district administration has a Herculean task of issuing cards to 71,325 people.
Complaining about the delay caused in issuing the cards, Apurva Wankhede, in-charge of UID scheme department, said that regardless of informing heads of various departments of the State Government, the work is not up to the mark.
“We have sufficient UID machines. However, the district UID scheme department always cites manpower crunch as the reason behind the delay,” she said. According to Wankhede, the officials would have issue 1,775 cards every day to meet the deadline.
In the district, there are eight Central Government departments under which there are 13 schemes for the people to take advantage of.
“We have asked the concerned department heads to create awareness among the beneficiaries, however not a single person has applied for UID for scholarship, post-matric scholarship, and schemes for the minorities,” said Wankhede.
When contacted, Head of Social Justice and Empowerment division Ravindra Kadam Patil said the department wasn’t aware of the scheme till last month. “We received the notification just a month ago, and in such a short time it almost impossible to cover beneficiaries studying in over 1,000 colleges in the district,” Patil said.
While Nilesh Ahire, assistant project officer of Integrated Tribal Development Project (Ghodegaon), said of the 4,932 beneficiaries of post-matric scholarship scheme, 60 students have already received their UID cards.
“While 297 students have already applied for it, we are confident of covering the 2,704 students in next 43 days,” Ahire said.u00a0