While the state government is keen on linking Aadhaar data with all services, the new Government Resolution on Aadhaar drive for anganwadi children may pose a hurdle for the regular drive in the district.
With a general assessment of Aadhaar data showing a dismal 3 per cent coverage in the district for children in the 0-6 years age bracket, focus shifted to the group, following which machines were moved from citizen facilitation centres to anganwadis.
“The machines which were utilised for the regular Aadhaar enrollment have now been shifted to anganwadis. After the latest GR was issued, we have been asked to focus on children. This will definitely affect the regular drive,’’ said Kiran Ghule, district manager of Spanco, the agency authorised by the UIDAI for Aadhaar enrollment.
For this special drive, machines will have to be circulated to 4,570 centres to cover 3.25 lakh children. Besides anganwadi children, the drive will also cover primary schools. The target is to cover 7 lakh children. With 84 machines allotted for the district, the district Aadhaar enrollment was at 77 per cent. After the recent initiatives of LPG subsidy linkage as well as property registrations and the announcement of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the district was looking at maximum registrations.
The agency, however, said that now with the focus on children, regular enrollment would suffer if more machines were not set up. Pune district collector Saurabh Rao has set a September deadline to see the entire district as Aadhaar covered with special emphasis on the 0-6 age group. “With the Aadhaar coverage dismally low for this age group, we plan to carry out a detailed mapping to carry out the drive for this sector. We are looking at one machine per zone,’’ said Rao.
According to the state government’s GR, the first thrust was to cover this age group and keep the regular work on, and for this the collector said he sought for more machines. Meanwhile, Spanco has sought more machines to complete the work in the district. At present, these machines are at the citizen facilitation centres and are not being utilised to its capacity. The collector is hopeful that once the machines are utilised optimally, the target will be met with.