Link SC/ST certificates with Aadhaar, says Centre

NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked states to make sincere efforts to issue SC/ST or domicile certificates linked with Aadhaar numbers to students in Class 5 or 8, in order to ensure authenticity of data is verified and there are no frauds at the stage of seeking admissions on basis of quota in higher educational institutions or joining government jobs.
"The State Government may try to get the information of students fed into the Meta Data to be made online and may link it to Aadhaar enabled data, if feasible. Sincere efforts be made to issue these certificates along with Aaadhar Number," the Centre has said in a set of Frequent asked questions (FAQs) on the issue of residence/domicile and caste/tribe certificates. The Centre had earlier proposed that in order to avoid difficulties faced by the SC/ST students, 'Caste or Tribe Certificate' and the Domicile certificate may be issued to SC/ST students while studying in Class V or Class VIII as an annual exercise. The State Government can choose either Class V or Class VIII to issue this certificate, the Centre says. The certificate should be handed over to the student and also uploaded on E-locker facilities, wherever such facilities are available in the States, the Centre says.

A window of two months in September/October or any other time frame decided by the concerned State Government may be allocated for completing this exercise. "The main objective of issuance of caste/tribe certificate is to facilitate access of bonafide candidates belonging to the SC/ST to the reserved posts and services under the State/Central Government and secure admission in educational institutions and other facilities being provided by the State/Central Government to them," the Centre says.The School Head Master or Principal will get the documents collected from SC and ST students and other students and arrange to submit them to the relevant State Government authority or revenue authorities for making the requisite certificate. The authorities would scrutinize and verify the documents and issue the relevant certificates within a period of 30-60 days.