Nandan Nilekani’s home state Karnataka lags in Aadhaar rollout

BENGALURU: Karnataka, the home state of former Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani, is lagging woefully behind in registering citizens for the Aadhaar card. While Delhi tops the list with 104% coverage, Karnataka is 15th among 35 states in terms of coverage. There is a question mark on whether even chief minister Siddaramaiah has an Aadhaar card.
Siddaramaiah, who holds the egovernance portfolio, had directed the e-governance officials to bring the state’s 6.11-crore population – according to the 2011 census -- under Aadhaar within June this year. Six months later, 1.47 crore people have still not been registered for Aadhaar.

Officials who have been monitoring the scheme from the past several years, said lack of political patronage has hampered the scheme. An official said that despite the BJP opposing the scheme in the run-up to the recent Lok Sabha election, all three former CMs from that party -- BS Yeddyurappa, DV Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar --had registered themselves for Aadhaar. The official said: “I am unable to confirm whether Siddaramaiah has an Aadhaar card.” Another official said they had offered to send a team to Siddaramaiah’s office to register him and his family for Aadhaar. “I am not aware if there was a response from them,” he added.

The CM, participating in the legislative assembly session in Belagavi, could not be reached for comment. Still, the department of e-governance, flush with the successful launch of the multi-modal mobile governance app last week, has decided to go all out to ensure that at least 96-98% of citizens are registered by March 2015. “We will meet this deadline by the Planning Commission and our state planning department to complete the registration of citizens,” Centre for E-governance CEO Rathan U Kelkar told ET.

Karnataka is aiming to be a trendsetter by rolling out permanent enrollment centres at the taluk, hobli and gram panchayat level as opposed to temporary centres being set up by others.

UIDAI deputy director general Ashok Dalwai told ET: “This example being set by Karnataka has to be lauded. All those who wish to update details, register children’s biometrics once they pass the cut-off age of five, or change their name and marital status, can just go to these permanent centres and do it anytime, even after this initial enrollment drive.”

Permanent enrollment centres will be opened within two weeks at Bangalore One, Karnataka One and Nada Kutcheris at the hobli level, numbering about 800. A total of 6,500 centres will dot the state once the second phase of the project is completed by April 2015. Raichur, Yadgir, Kalaburgi, Chikballapur and Chitradurga have less than 70% enrollment and officials have asked the egovernance department to concentrate on them.