Maharashtra government has developed a self seeding module wherein any resident can seed his data related to PDS, NREGA among other schemes either through SMS or through Web. This is the first example of real use of SRDH in the country. Dr A B Pandey, Deputy Director General, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)-West, Government of India tells us more
“In next one year we will achieve a kind of saturation and a lot of Government schemes can be linked with the UIDAI”
How has the state progressed in terms of UIDAI in the last one year?
In Maharashtra, now we have covered almost 6 Crore population for Adhaar enrollments, also the Maharashtra government and other registrars have planned to complete 90 percent of the population under Adhaar by March 2014.In addition, the direct benefit transfer schemes have also started particularly in the scholarship schemes so seeding of UID in the beneficiaries beneficiaries’ database and also in their bank account have begun these will facilitate the releasing Aadhar based payment to citizens. Our pilots have begun for actual direct benefit transfer in Maharashtra’s six districts that include Mumbai, Mumbai Subarban, Pune, Nandurbagh,Wardha and Amravati. We are also going to further add six more districts within next month as part of the second phase of action. Significant progress towards Aadhar-based authentication and deployment of micro ATM’s has happened. As compared to last year, we are in a better position to demonstrate the online usage of Aadhar-based authentication, where on a micro ATM kind of a device people can put their finger prints and also give their UID numbers and then in few seconds the person an get authenticated. So this is now fully in production. We have a unique system called e-Aadhar where people can go online and put their details and moreover they can also print their Aadhar. Maharashtra has now a state of the art state residents data hub, the first state to implement innovative usages of it including SMS and Web based Self seeding, resulting in usage by departments for delivering citizen centric services.
How do the Adhaar linked accounts weed away bogus beneficiaries?
If the benefit was earlier going to get bogus now that we have linked with the UID and to the bank accounts then naturally bogus person cannot have a UID. Plus because we are linking the benefit with the UID’s therefore one person can open only one account. He cannot get multiple bank accounts and cannot have multiple identities and get multiple benefits. India is getting ready for e-transactions and that will play a key role in bringing transparency in the government functioning.
Tell us on the plans to implement direct benefit transfer based on Adhaar numbers in Maharashtra?
In the state, the scheme will be run in total 12 district of Maharashtra where there will be a direct benefit transfer of government schemes through UID benefit account. Some of the schemes of Government where also the Aadhar is been linked include one of LPG subsidy, wherein we are working with the oil companies and so every gas cylinder account is linked with the UID and as and when the government decides to give cash subsidy to the LPG cylinder holders, the beneficiaries can gain the benefit. We are also working with the banks so that the people’s bank accounts are linked with the UID so that anyone can be the beneficiary of any scheme and as an when the Government decides to give cash benefit through bank account, then the benefits can flow to the Aadhar-linked bank accounts. With all these initiatives gaining steam as we progress ahead, we hope in next one year particularly in Maharashtra, we will achieve a kind of saturation and a lot of Government schemes can be linked with the UID so that people are able to get these benefits in a very easy manner.
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