AP role model for country in ‘Aadhaar’: Nandan Nilekani

Hyderabad, July 5 : Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani said that in the next three to six months entire Andhra Pradesh will be covered by Aadhaar by enrolling every person in the State. He said that Andhra Pradesh would be the first State in the country to be fully enrolled by Aadhaar.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday held a detailed review meeting at Secretariat with Nilakani, other UIDAI officials, Ministers and higher officials. He agreed to work in close coordination with the UIDAI to achieve cent per cent enrolment and see that every benefit of all the welfare schemes reach the genuine beneficiary through the Aadhaar cards.

Ministers Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, D Sridhar Babu, Pithani Satyanarayana, D. Manikya Varaprasad, Chief Secretary Dr P.K.Mohanty, Director General UIDAI Madan, Principal Secretary Finance and State DBT Nodal Officer Dr. P.V.Ramesh, Principal Secretaries – S.P. Tucker, V.Bhasker, Raymond Peter, R.Subramaniam, Secretary, IT, Sanjay Jaju and other officials attended the meeting.

Nilekani said that no other State in the country has done the Aadhar Enrolment and link-up in such a holistic way as Andhra Pradesh. He said A.P. is a role model for other States in this regard. He lauded the State for the achievement and said that a presentation in this regard will be made in New Delhi for the guidance of other States.

The Chief Minister said that when Aadhar is linked up to delivery of all the welfare schemes in the State, it will ensure that all the eligible people will get the benefits which will enhance the credibility of the Government since there will be a feel good factor among the people. He said that the State Government provides various benefits to 8.5 cr people worth about Rs.28,000 crs.

Nilekani called for special focus on the residual enrolment which needs a targetted approach. He said a map should be prepared pin-code wise of the low connectivity and low enrolment areas, particularly the tribal areas. Officials informed that by 1st July 2013, about 8.14 crore citizens of the total population of 8.46 crores (2011 census) have enrolled themselves for Aadhaar. This is an impressive 96 per cent of the total population and about 23 per cent of the total Aadhaar enrolment across the country. Of these 6.30 crore citizens of the State have been issued Unique Identification Number (UID) by 1st July 2013. This entails that about three fourths (74 per cent) of all AP citizens have Aadhaar as on 1 July 2013. In the five phase-I DBT districts, 95 per cent of the population have been provided with Aadhaar. In eight Phase-II DBT districts, the Aadhaar provided population is around 72 per cent .

Currently, nearly 4,000 enrolment centres are functioning across the State. If the current pace is sustained, all citizens of AP will have Aadhaar latest by 31st December 2013, the first State in the country to achieve this distinction. The current enrolment trends indicate that average enrolment across the state is around 7.10 lakh per week, which translates to around 4,400 per district per day or around 25 per station per day. At the current rate, it would require 114 working days (around 4 to 5 months) to enroll the remaining 1.16 crore people (12 lakh un-enrolled; 72.62 lakh rejects; 32 lakh children born since 2011 census). Since a majority of those not enrolled include people living in remote and interior areas and the migrant population, it would require concerted efforts to get them enrolled.

Direct Benefit Scheme was launched in five districts of AP – Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, East Godavari, Chittoor and Ananthapur – on 1 January 2013. Initially this was limited to Scholarships being administered by the Central Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, Minority Welfare, Human Resources Development, and Tribal Welfare, in addition to Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) administered by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and their counterpart State departments.

The LPG has been brought under DBT sphere on 1st June 2013. In addition, the pensions under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) have since been included. GoI has introduced DBT to LPG consumers from 1st June, 2013 in the five pilot districts. Under the scheme all LPG consumers who have linked their Aadhaar numbers with dealers and bank accounts will get an advance of Rs.435 on booking the first cylinder on or after 1st June, 2013. As soon as the cylinder is delivered to such consumers, subsidy eligible on the date of delivery will again get credited in their bank accounts. This will reduce the burden to consumers as they will be required to pay the market price of around Rs.900 per cylinder. All those consumers who have not linked their Aadhaar with both the dealer and the bank accounts will continue to get LPG at the current subsidised price for a period of three months till 31st August, 2013.

The State Government has included all 12 scholarship schemes administered by the Department of Social Welfare, Tribal Welfare, BC Welfare and Minority Welfare in the DBT scheme, in addition to the ten Central Sector Scholarship schemes of the GoI. The state government provides around 27 lakh scholarships annually. The process is currently being undertaken in all districts to enrol new student scholarship beneficiaries and renew the scholarships of those who are continuing in the stream of education.

The scholarship database is being managed through E-pass system, a robust programme developed by the AP government. An interface will be established in due course between E-pass and the CPSMS. The government proposes to transfer all scholarships in the Phase-I districts through Aadhaar Payment Bridge from 1 August 2013 for all students with Aadhaar seeded in the database and the bank accounts.

A complete transition to Aadhaar will be effected by 1st October 2013 if no glitches are noticed. The Government of India has extended DBT Scheme to seventy eight (78) additional districts in the country from 1st July 2013. In Andhra Pradesh, eight districts are selected, which include: Srikakulam, Krishna, Guntur, Adilabad, Kadapa, Vizianagaram, Kurnool and Nalgonda. In addition to the 26 schemes covered earlier, three pension schemes (old age, widow disability) are also proposed to be brought under DBT from July 1, 2013. INN