Post offices to soon help pensioners in seeding Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: Post offices across the country will soon be providing assistance to pensioners in linking their their accounts to Aadhaar numbers.

Besides, the Centre will be taking steps to ensure quick grant of Aadhaar numbers to pensioners in north eastern areas.

This was decided by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in a video conference held last week with representatives of pensioners' association on various matters concerning them.

It was pointed out by Central Government Pensioners Association, Jaipur that people who are drawing their pensions from post offices are yet to carry out seeding of Aadhaar due to lack of facilities for linking of Aadhaar card in post offices, according to minutes of the meeting.

The associations were assured that the ministry will deal with this issue separately with Department of Posts, it said.

"The ministry has taken up the matter to ensure that post offices across the country help in seeding of Aadhaar numbers of pensioners on priority basis," a senior Personnel Ministry official said.

During the conference, it was pointed out that the linking has not been possible in majority of cases because of non-availability of Aadhaar cards in north east area.

It was then decided that Registrar General of India will be informed for speeding up registration process in the north eastern region, the minutes said.

There are about 58 lakh central government pensioners across the country.

"The associations were requested to get their members' Aadhaar card linked with their pension accounts wherever this has not been done. They are also requested to spread the message and persuade even those pensioners who are not their members to get their Aadhaar card linked with the pension account," it said.

All the pensioners' associations were also asked to continue to work towards special cleanliness drive with the help of municipal corporation and resident societies, and create awareness among the public through their own resources, the minutes said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issues Aadhaar--a 12-digit unique identification number--which acts as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in the country.