Shillong, April 20: Meghalaya Chief Minister Mr. Conrad Sangma today informed the House that over 7.5 lakh people in the state have enrolled under Aadhar, which is about 23 per cent of the total State population.
Giving a statement during a Call Attention Notice moved by Independent MLA, Mr. Adelbert Nongrum, Mr. Sangma said, that 7,56529 people out of the total population of the State, which is 32,30,132, have enrolled under Aadhar so
Mr. Sangma said that through Aadhar India aims to provide a unique identity number for every resident and is the largest biometric identification programme in the world. Launched in 2008, the programme has created identities for the citizens of India.
It further aims to achieve social inclusion for achieving efficient public and private service delivery and Aadhar is used for several public purposes such as digitalizing Government subsidy flows, financial services, recording attendance of Government employees, issuance of Passport and other forms of IDs. Some of the benefits under Aadhar, he said, are that the card provides a universal card. The card can be used for a number of purposes, making it universally acceptable Government-issued card.
One of the most important uses of Aadhar card is that it permits the holder to avail of all eligible government subsidies. Moreover, the Chief Minister said that Aadhar card can be applied online, which is known as e-Aadhar and is the downloadable version of the physical copy of the card.
For Government purposes the card can be used to speed up Government and bureaucratic process such as acquisition of passport, opening bank accounts, digital life certificate and receipt of Monthly pension
Mr.Sangma informed the House that some of the mechanisms implemented by the State Government to issue the card is through the EPIC card. In the absence of an EPIC, writing from the Rangbah Shnongs, Nokma, headmen certifying the genuineness of the enrollee or Passport issued by the External Affairs Ministry.
The Chief Minister said that the Government of India has extended the deadline for providing Aadhar to avail of various services under section 7 of the Aadhar Act to June 30, 2018. A notification extending the deadline was issued by the Government of India on March 28, 2018.
He further mentioned that the Supreme Court of India has refused to pass an interim order extending the deadline of March 31, 2018 for linking Aadhar with Government welfare schemes where benefits are transferred to citizens from the Consolidated Fund of India.
Hence the Government the Supreme Court has allowed the Government to link Aadhar card of the beneficiaries for transfer of benefits of schemes funded from the Consolidated Fund.However, Mr. Sangma said, the Supreme Court has extended indefinitely, till further orders, the mandatory linking of bank accounts, mobile phones, passport, PAN card with Aadhar card.
