Odisha to open Aadhaar centres at hospitals

Odisha government on Tuesday decided to open Aadhaar facilitation centres at hospitals and urban local bodies for generation of the 12-digit unique identity at the time of birth and issue of birth certificates.

This was decided at the State Level Unique Identification Implementation Committee Meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary A K Tripathy here.

"For the purpose new updated kits would be procured," the chief secretary said.

Tripathy directed the nodal implementing agency OCAC (Odisha Computer Application Centre) along with concerned departments, to devise age-group specific strategies of live saturation enrolment and scale up Odisha to Top-5 States in Aadhaar implementation.

Tripathy further directed to focus on Aadhaar generation of the children in the age group of 0-5 and 5-18. "The meeting resolved to link the issue of birth certificates to Aadhaar registration," said Odisha IT Secretary M Mishra.

He said Aadhaar facilitation centers would be opened at hospitals and urban local bodies for aadhaar generation at the time of birth and issue of birth certificates. Target was set to roll out the process for registration by January, 2020, he said.

Tripathy also directed that Anganwadi Centers and schools should be actively involved in Aadhaar enrolment of the children.

Out of Odishas projected population of 4.58 crore by 2019, so far 4.41 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated in the age group of 18 and above which is around 93.1 per cent of the projected population, an official said.

The registration level in 0-5 age group is around 46 per cent with real number of 18,26,038 and in the 5-18 age group it is around 81 per cent with real number of 95,87,186.

"Odisha has made appreciable progress in implementation of Aadhaar enrolment. The enrolment achievement in Odisha has been more than 93 per cent against all India average of around 90 per cent, said Deputy Director General Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) G Venugopal Reddy.

Reddy, who was here to review the status of Aadhaar enrolment in the state said: "The progress of Odisha in other indicators was also comparatively good".

"With the new strategy Odisha would certainly do better at national level in coming months, said the DDG UIDAI.