Tripura leads in enrolments for the the ambitious "Aadhaar" scheme, a 12-digit number being issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for all Indian residents, a minister said here Monday.
"In Tripura, 80 percent of the 3.7 million population have so far been enrolled in Aadhaar scheme followed by Andhra Pradesh (25 percent) and Maharashtra (20 percent)," Tripura Rural Development Minister Jitendra Choudhury told reporters.
Quoting a communique of the union rural development ministry, Choudhury said : "The central government, at a function in New Delhi on Thursday, would give awards to Tripura and other well performing states in implementation of the Aadhaar scheme."
Tripura was the first state in the northeast and the eighth in India where the Aadhaar scheme was launched on Dec 2 last year.
According to UIDAI director general and mission director Ram Sevak Sharma, in the next four years, 60 crore Indians would get the Aadhaar number.
"Crores of Indians do not have bank accounts. Once they get the Aadhaar number it would easily facilitate them to open a bank account and get banking services," Sharma had told reporters here recently.
The Aadhaar scheme, formally launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sep 29 last year, is now in progress in many states. UIDAI has empanelled several enrolment agencies across the country.
"The Aadhaar number is an official confirmation of residency not the citizenship of any individual," an official of the Tripura government clarified.
"The quality and speed of lots of government programmes and issue of official documents to people would be improved through this Aadhaar number," he said, adding that the problems in getting government facilities and services would also be reduced.
According to the official, the Aadhaar number would be stored in a centralised database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information, including a person's photographs, 10 fingerprints and iris impression.
"The Aadhaar number and all details of an individual will be easily verifiable in an online and cost-effective way," he added.
"By March next year, the enrolment of all residents of Tripura would be completed. They would then get the Aadhaar number directly from UIDAI," said the official.