• Nagaland State now under ambit of UIDAI for Aadhaar exercise
• No hassles now, a citizen can easily apply with an identity card
Ashikho Pfuzhe
Dimapur | November 6
Nagaland State has now come under the ambit of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for the Aadhaar enrolment exercise.
The transition is expected to speed up the Aadhaar enrolment in the State, which is lagging behind compared to Aadhaar generation in other states under UIDAI. Against the State population of 19.78 lakh as per the 2011 Census, at present, Aadhaar generation stands at 11.09 lakh.
While the rest of the states in India come under UIDAI for the Aadhaar exercise, ten states including Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram were covered under the National Population Register (NPR).
Sources from Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (RG & CCI) said earlier this year that UIDAI officials met with the Nagaland State government representatives. In the meeting, it was decided that the State Home Department will be the nodal department to overlook the Aadhaar enrolment with Home Commissioner as the State Registrar and all offices of deputy commissioners, additional deputy commissioners and SDO (C) designated as enrolment agencies.
The Registrar General of India (RGI) also issued instructions that all biometric equipment and machines should be under custody of the district administration. The Aadhaar enrolment in the State under UIDAI, expected to commence from November 1, is yet to kick off.
Sources said Aadhaar processing under NPR takes time as issues like “infiltration and illegal immigration” are taken into account whereas in the case of UIDAI, a person can easily apply with an identity card.
In Nagaland State, the bio-metric data collection exercise under NPR started in 2010 and the first phase of bio-metric capturing for issuance of Aadhaar card commenced in 2012-13 and subsequent phase in 2013-2014. However, due to low percentage of Aadhaar generation, the Government of India gave a 12-month extension period (January 2015-December 2015), which was extended for another 3 months (January-March 2016).
Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), the service provider for Aadhaar enrolment in Nagaland State, sub-let the contract to two private companies- In Media Computer Services LLP and Clairvoyance Technologies Pvt. Ltd. as enrolment agencies.
Initially, the enrolment agencies received lump sum payment every month from the central government for the Aadhaar exercise. The agencies received the lump sum payment irrespective of the amount of data captured. However, from March this year, the government has reportedly done away with the lump sum payment, and instead paid Rs. 34 per data capture to the enrolment agencies.
“RGI decided to pay the service providers per data capture as in some enrolment centres, there were hardly 2-3 data captures per day, incurring huge loss to the government exchequer considering the costly bio metric machines involved,” RGI sources said.
The service providers argued that the per data capture payment was too less to meet expenses involving payment to technicians and operators manning the centres and decided to opt out of the contract and closed down operations in all districts, except Dimapur and Kohima, in December 2015.
Aadhaar exercise under UIDAI in Nagaland is likely to run into rough weather. Sources said UIDAI would be paying Rs. 40 per data capture to the State government and of the Rs. 40, they later suggested a break-up of Rs. 20 to district administration (to meet cost of cartridge, paper, diesel etc.), Rs. 15 to operators (salary) and Rs. 5 to the State government. However, the Central government has reportedly questioned why the State government should deduct Rs. 5.
“In populated districts like Dimapur which can generate 140-150 data capture per day, the operators may be able to manage with Rs. 15 per capture. But in interior districts where data capture would hardly be 4-5 per day, it will be difficult for operators to subsist,” an operator said.
“There are lots of other technicalities involved, but now it’s upto the State government to monitor and streamline the process,” RGI sources said.
