State’s 2.10 cr people to get unique ID

Raipur, January 20, 2010

About 2.10 crore population of the state will get new identification number through the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The Authority’s Chairman Nandan Nilekani, who was in capital on Wednesday, paid courtesy visit to Chief Minister Raman Singh at his residence and informed him in detail about the UIDAI’s target to distribute the unique ID numbers to each and every citizen of the country. Appreciating the state government’s initiatives to use Information Technology (IT) for common mass, Nilekani said the allocation of unique ID numbers to the people of the state would be an added advantage for them to avail the benefits of various mass-oriented schemes.

The CM assured Nilekani to provide full support in implementation of UIDAI project. Nilekani further informed that the Authority aimed to allocate about 60 lakh unique DI numbers in next 4-5 years. An ID number would be generated by taking every individual’s thumb impression. On the basis of this number, the state governments will issue identity cards.

The CM informed Nilekani that IT was playing key role in various departments of the state and exemplified the website of Food and Civil Supplies Department in which any individual can fetch records pertaining to public distribution system (PDS), paddy procurement, grievance redressal system, etc. He said the government had also opened free-of-cost call centres to redress the problem related to PDS.

About upcoming projects based on IT, the CM said the government aimed to insert comprehensive data regarding list of workers under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the website apart from information about disbursal of payment to them. The government has also set a target to create a huge database of 27 lakh families of the state in the website who would be benefited under National Health Insurance Scheme, he added. Besides, list of beneficiaries under Social Security Pension Scheme and Old Age Pension Scheme would also be made available in the website, he said.

On the occasion, CM’s Principal Secretary N Baijendra Kumar, Finance and Planning Department Principal Secretary Ajay Singh and UIDAI’s Deputy Director General VS Bhaskar and Assistant Director General Shrinivasan (both from Hyderabad Regional Office).