Two-thirds of UP population now has Aadhaar card

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has generated more than 14 crore Aadhaar numbers in Uttar Pradesh, covering two-thirds of its projected population in 2015, an official said on Wednesday.

Allahabad is at the top with 37.67 lakh Aadhaar number generation followed by Lucknow with 37.59 lakh and Kanpur Nagar with 35.18 lakh. Coverage of Aadhaar generation among residents above 18 years of age has reached 91.89 percent in the state, the official told IANS.

"The Aadhaar generation in the month of January 2016 is equal to the Aadhaar generation in the last three months of October, November and December 2015 taken together, which shows that the residents are coming out in large numbers for Aadhaar enrolment," the official further added.

In the month of February, more than 20 lakh Aadhaar have been generated till Monday (February 15).

The current phase of enrolment started in March 2014.

Those residents who are being enrolled recently, their Aadhaar number is now being generated expeditiously since there is increased capacity to de-duplicate and generate large volumes of Aadhaar number on day-to-day basis.

The residents below 18 years of age have low coverage of Aadhaar and, therefore, emphasis is being given by UIDAI to cover children aged below five years through Aanganwadis and children aged 5-18 years in schools and colleges.

Necessary instructions to field functionaries have already been issued by the state government for expeditious enrolment of remaining population in these age groups. Steps have been taken to felicitate the enrolment of senior citizens and disabled persons so that they do not face any problem during Aadhaar enrolment.

More than 2,300 tablets have been deployed throughout the state to enrol children below five years of age.

At present, there are more than 6,000 enrolment kits at more than 4,000 enrolment centres operated by 80 Enrolment Agencies and these include 3,342 Permanent Enrolment Centres (PECs) which are being operated in various parts of the state to facilitate residents not only to enrol for Aadhaar but also to resolve other issues like printing of e-Aadhaar and updation of Aadhaar.

Aadhaar enrolment is required for residents to avail various government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pension schemes, Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG Subsidy (DBTL), Universal Account Number (UAN) of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Public Distribution System (PDS).