Enrolment touches 112% in the State
NISHITHA NAIR SHRIVASTAVA
PANJIM: While the brouhaha over unique identity numbers (UID) or Aadhaar numbers continues in the Supreme Court, the nodal department for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project in Goa, the Department of Planning, Statistics and Evaluation says that as far as Goa government is concerned, it has not made the Aadhaar card compulsory for any social welfare scheme.
Vijay Saxena, Joint Director of the department told Herald that the purpose of linking the number to various social benefits is that the government is trying to bring in transparency and accountability in every scheme that is beneficiary-oriented.
“UID is the only tool with which you can bring total transparency in the functioning of a scheme. The government is asking people to link Aadhaar numbers with schemes so that the benefit goes only to that person, and all fake and ghost beneficiaries are removed from the scheme,” says Saxena.
Stressing that submitting the card to avail of social benefits is not mandatory, the joint director added that while no government agency would force them to submit the Aadhaar card, it would help the government improve the functioning of social welfare schemes.
“If you do not have the Aadhaar card, you can give a photocopy of the enrolment form. It then becomes the duty of that particular department to make an effort and get the number online from UIDAI,” he states.
The department has crossed 100% enrolments to reach 112%. Speaking about the 12% surplus, Saxena says that it could either mean his estimates are incorrect, or these are people who do not check the website for their status and reapply twice and three times. Of the 112% enrolments, about 9 per cent are yet to receive their Aadhaar cards.
While Saxena could not give a time frame to receive the card, he said that if the website stated your card is ‘under generation’, then you should wait 15 days before reapplying. And if it stated that it has been rejected, the reapplication should be immediate.
