BANGALORE: The Department of e-governance can heave a sigh of relief with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposing more funds to complete the enrolment of another 40 crore citizens for Aadhaar cards starting from April 1. While the department is waiting for guidelines from the Centre, there have been 1.48 crore enrolments and Aadhaar numbers been issued to 1.1 crore people.“We have stopped the enrolments as the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) asked us to stop. If we are given a green signal, we could have finished all the enrolments of the residents’ population by April,” said Principal Secretary for IT, BT, S&T and e-governance M N Vidyashankar. He added that the government was waiting for new guidelines from the Centre for resuming the process of enrolments. Vidyashankar added, “As a part of the Karnataka Resident Data Hub, we have already started the work of merging the Aadhaar number with the databases available in the two pilot districts of Mysore and Tumkur. Enrolments in these two districts have finished completely.” What’s in Store for Aadhaar?The Union Budget has said that the National Population Register (NPR) is likely to be completed within the next two years. The Centre is also considering a proposal to issue Resident Identity Cards bearing Aadhaar numbers to all residents aged 18 years.A Public Distribution System (PDS) Network is being created using the Aadhaar platform, along with a National Information Utility for the computerisation of the PDS. It is likely to be operational by December. The Aadhaar platform is now ready to support the payments of MGNREGA for old age, widow and disability pensions, etc directly to the beneficiary accounts.
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