Prasad visits widows of Vrindavan Ashram to issue Aadhaar

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today visited widows of Vrindavan Ashram in Mathura district to issue Aadhaar numbers to them, calling it a "high watermark" of Digital India.
"Creating Aadhaar for widows of Vrindavan, one of the most neglected section of society, is a high watermark of Digital India under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I keep doing a lot of other works, but this is one of the most important moments of my life," Prasad said here.
Till date, 15.2 crore Aadhaars have been generated in Uttar Pradesh, which is 72 per cent of the projected population of 21.12 crore in the state in 2015.

In Mathura district, 18.44 lakh Aadhaars have been generated, which is 68.5 per cent of the projected population of 26.93 lakh of the district in 2015.
"Issuing them Aadhaar reinforces that Digital India is for the poor and underprivileged. They (widows of Vrindavan Ashram) now have a digital identity. All governmental benefits will go into their account directly. They can enjoy benefits of public distribution scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana and others," Prasad said.
He said the success of Aadhaar is a proof that governance can be improved through technology.

In 2015-16, the government transferred Rs 61,000 crore to 30 crore beneficiaries.

He added that 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries were weeded out and over Rs 15,000 crore were saved in 2014-15 under the direct benefit transfer scheme.
The minister also said the government is working on a mobile application that will give access to over 1,000 services from the Centre and state governments and will be launched by December 2016.