Aadhaar

Aadhaar

Aadhaar

Aadhaar

Aadhaar

Aadhaar

Aadhaar

BENGALURU: While the Centre is celebrating the achievement of having enrolled over 1 billion citizens under Karnataka , the home state of the project’s envisager, Nandan Nilekani , is ranked a poor 18 in the coverage of its population under the unique id scheme While Delhi tops the list with 110.2 per cent coverage, including its population and registration of floating population in itscentres, Karnataka, despite its stellar position as IT and e-governance pioneer, has managed to cover only about 84.4 per cent of its 6.45 crore population. The state was ranked 15 in 2014 and has sunk three positions now, though chief minister Siddaramaiah set several deadlines starting with March 2015 for full coverage.All neighbouring states with the exception of Tamil Nadu are ranked higher than Karnataka, with Telangana standing second in enrollment. Maharashtra, with a much larger population of 11.8 crore and backward states like Jharkhand and Chattisgarh are ranked higher.Officials directly involved in the process ofregistration in Karnataka said orders were issued by the education department and the women and child welfare department to enroll children between 0 to 5 and 6 to 16. “If these two areas are covered fully, theenrollment would reach 97 per cent,” Rathan U Kelkar, chief executive officer of Karnataka’s Centre for E-governance told ET.The project, so far, was seriously hampered by the lack of a law that madea necessity for all. With the NDA government giving the project a legal sanction by passing theAct as a money bill, officials feel the registration process might be speeded up.In mid-2015, Karnataka’s education department issued a circular making it necessary for every child enrolled in government and private schools to be registered under. This was challenged by parents in several institutions. In government schools also, the registration did not take place at the pace envisaged, due to local logistics and the large nature of task.Kelkar said that the government was now looking to ensure total coverage of anganwadis, which number over 50,000 in the state and government schools by September. “We had initially aimed for June, but that will require enrollment of over 60,000 a day, which is not logistically possible,” he admitted.The government is also setting up enrollment centres in each of the 198 wards of Bengaluru city in an effort to capture the entire population of over 1 crore along with the floating population that is said to be in the range of about 20 lakh. “We are also reaching out to the differently-abled, the bed-ridden and the elderly by doing tie-ups with NGOs to identify and register them. The last-mile connectivity is taking time, but we are trying to take it up in mission mode and finish it at the earliest,” Kelkar said.