Pinning hope on Aadhar programme as a tool to stop leakages in different government schemes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed officials to provide unique identification number to every citizen of the by early 2017.
According to sources, a presentation has been given to PM Modi about the ongoing enrolment programmes in different states, after which he has set a deadline for the completion of Aadhaar enrolment by March 2017.
“Till date, over 102 crore people have been enrolled under the Aadhaar programme and the Prime Minister has slated the deadline to complete the enrolment of all elders by September 2016. While till March 2017, the Prime Minister has directed the officials concerned to provide Aadhaar number to everyone, including newborn,” a source said.
According to sources, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has given a presentation to PM Modi in this regard. “During the presentation, issues of duplicity, putting a check on issuance of unique identification numbers to infiltrators, etc, were also discussed along with success stories of this programme, a source said.
The Prime Minister was also informed about Aadhaar camps being organised in several states for enrolling children with the country’s national biometric ID programme. Several camps are being organised in villages and at schools so that every child could get enrolled.
At the camps parents are encouraged to bring their children’s birth certificates and their own Aadhaar cards. Hailing the potential of Aadhaar scheme in controlling corruption, Modi had said that his government had saved over Rs 36,000-crore leakages. “In our campaign to check corruption, our government has saved over Rs 36,000-crore leakages. About one crore and 62 lakh ration cards have been recovered,” Modi had said.