Dear Comrade,
With the Delhi government
voicing concern over loss of Aadhaar letters during transit — Newsline
reported many are being dumped in bulk at certain places — India Post,
the designated carrier for the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI), has acknowledged that it struggled to deal with bulk orders
during Phase I of the project owing to shortage of manpower and
equipment.
The postal department, which was responsible for printing,
dispatch and delivery of Aadhaar numbers, said the printing work has
been outsourced and it will now only dispatch and deliver under Phase
II.
Y P S Mohan, Chief General Manager (Business Development and
Marketing Directorate), Department of Posts, told Newsline there were
problems and shortage of resources “but Phase II will be a smooth sail”.
“We are very low on manpower and cities have expanded very fast.
If a postman had a 3-km area under him, now the same has increased to
10-km or more.”
Mohan said the UIDAI had initially placed an order for printing
25 lakh letters in 2010. These were printed in Delhi and Kolkata.
“The UIDAI articles is a one-off project which will get over in
another couple of years. But it was a very big challenge for us.
Enrolment started on a large scale in 2011 and we had the task of
printing, dispatch and delivery of 2.5 crore speed posts a month. We
have handled a maximum of 11 lakh articles in a single day. But our
capacity was less, we were ill-equipped to take up such mass printing,
and the UIDAI understood that. It was then decided to outsource
printing. From January 2012 onward, we have been able to clear our
backlog,” Mohan said.
Given that the official time limit for delivery of speed post is
seven days, Mohan said postmen have been asked to devote extra time.
“Since the beat areas have expanded and there are too many letters to be
delivered, post offices have been asked to ensure accuracy and take
extra time if needed,” he said.
Meanwhile, UIDAI chairperson Nandan Nilekani met Chief Minister
Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday and proposed implementation of the
Aadhaar-based “business correspondent (BC)” model in Delhi, so far
implemented in rural areas to facilitate doorstep banking services to
workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme.
Under this model, accredited agents provide doorstep banking
services using a micro-ATM. People use their Aadhaar-enabled bank
accounts and the portable ATMs work with biometric authentication as
identification proof.
A senior government official said: “The Chief Minister has given a
go ahead that all major social security schemes in Delhi, Delhi
Annashree Yojna to begin with, be primarily based on Aadhaar.” Officials
of the UIDAI said modalities of the model will be worked out to help
the Delhi government in implementing schemes.
Sujata Chaturvedi, Deputy Director General of UIDAI’s Delhi zone,
said: “The idea behind implementation of the BC model here is to enable
the Delhi government in implementing various social security schemes
more effectively. Modalities of working out this model in Delhi are
still being worked out in consultation with other stakeholders. While
the Delhi government will lead the schemes, UIDAI will provide support
services with the use of Aadhaar, like direct cash transfers to
beneficiaries.”
Indianexpress
