New Delhi:
Residents in the city are likely to get Unique Identification Numbers from October onwards with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today issuing direction to complete the process as soon as possible.
Dikshit today chaired a high-level meeting attended by her cabinet colleagues and the top officials of various concerned departments and reviewed the progress of the entire process. Officials said the Chief Minister will write a letter to each and every family of the city seeking their cooperation in the enrolment exercise.
Last week UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani had met Dikshit and requested her to expedite the process of enrolment of people for the database.
"We have decided to complete the entire process by October this year. The process of issuing the Adhar numbers will start in October itself," said a senior official. He added that 3,000 machines will be deployed across the city to record the fingerprints and iris images of the residents. These records would only be taken from those above the age of five years.
The official said they are aiming at completing taking records of 1.5 lakh people daily and that the entire exercise will be completed by October. The government has decided to make use of school buildings during the summer vacations for installing the machines. The official said the machines will be deployed in schools which were used as polling stations in the last Lok Sabha polls.
"The Adhar numbers will be sent by speed post after 15 days of completion of enrolment process," he said.
The government has relevant records of 8.77 lakh BPL and other vulnerable families, and it was decided that the process to enrol their names in the UIDAI database will be taken up at the earliest.
Today's meeting also decided to launch a campaign in order to bring awareness about the importance of getting Adhar numbers. Officials said that the Government has decided to link its various welfare schemes with the Adhar database so as to plug the loopholes in the system. The official said Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta will oversee and monitor the progress of the UIDAI progress at regular intervals.