PM Narendra Modi to review progress of Aadhaar tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting tomorrow to take stock of progress in Aadhaar project, which the new government will use as a tool for its various welfare schemes including the Jan Dhan Yojana.

"Prime Minister has called a meeting of top officials to review the Aadhaar project. He wants to have a re-look at the progress of the project, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where other schemes are facing difficulties due to low Aadhaar enrolments," sources said.

At present, 66.99 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued. In Uttar Pradesh, about 4.62 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued against a population of 19.95 crore.

In Bihar, around 1.41 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued against a population of about 10.38 crore.

The meeting will be attended by Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad among other Cabinet members, they added.

"Prime Minister wants the project to be completed as soon as possible so that it can be used for the various welfare initiatives and programmes of the government including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana," sources said.

Under Aadhar project, UIDAI issues unique identification number to residents and collects their biometric details. These days many service providers like banks are using Aadhar as KYC detail for opening new accounts.

The previous UPA government had entrusted UIDAI, which issues unique identification numbers to residents, to start enrolments in four more states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand - in February 2014.

There are around 40 crore people in these four states, which were earlier covered under the National Population Register (NPR) project of the Home Ministry.

In the backdrop of slow progress by NPR in these states, the government is pushing for the Aadhaar enrolments in these four states and other parts of the country.

UIDAI was established in 2009 to generate and assign unique identity numbers for residents of India.