IT Minister says work on to restore Aadhaar services to 3 lakh common service centres

NEW DELHI: The government is trying to find a way to restore the Aadhaar service operations at close to 3,00,000 common service centers in the country, Union minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday.

Prasad also assured the participating village-level entrepreneurs that every effort was been made for further strengthening their engagement in the process of reaching the masses through the use of Aadhaar.

“Common Service Centres (CSC) are well placed to play umbilical cord role in the process of shaping new India where all services and incentives are available to the last man in the line at his door step,” Prasad said, adding that there can be no other model which can ensure empowering of the rural people while protecting economic viability.


CSC SPV had partnered with the country's retail payment platform NPCI to launch Aadhaar-enabled payment system in January 2016. This service facilitates disbursement of government entitlements such as payment under MGNREGA, social security pension, handicapped and old age pensions of any central or state government bodies, by using the Aadhaar authentication. At present, withdrawal as well as deposit facilities are available through CSCs under this system.

Earlier, CSCs were also conducting Aadhaar enrollment as well as authentication leading to significant profits for the entrepreneurs. The Aadhaar issuing authority, however, had asked states to ensure that all enrolments, even those by private agencies, shift to government or municipal premises from external sites by September last year leading to stoppage of such facility in CSC and subsequent loss of revenue.