The general public can now visit their nearest post-offices and enrol themselves for the Unique Identification (UID) or Aadhaar cards. On Thursday, the Aadhaar Enrolment Centre at General Post-Office (GPO) was inaugurated and in the coming few days, the Department of Posts officials said that another 16 post-offices will be added in Hyderabad to enrol the public for Aadhaar cards.
In the first phase, in another one week, eight enrolment centres in post-offices located at Sanathnagar, Pattargatti, Uppal, Begumpet, Himmatnagar and Jamai-Osmania will come up, the department officials on Thursday said.
“In all, 317 post-offices in the State have been identified as enrolment centres and in a phased manner the services will be extended throughout. At present there is only one counter at GPO but we will try to improve and open more counters in future,” said Postmaster General (Business Development), K. Sandhya Rani during the inauguration of enrolment centre at GPO.
Highest number
Speaking at the inaugural programme, Deputy Director General, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), V. S. Bhaskar said that Andhra Pradesh remains highest in terms of number of persons enrolled for Aadhaar cards.
“Close to 2.5 crore persons from AP have enrolled so far and this is the largest number in the country followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka. Tentatively, we have set March 31, 2012 as the final date for completing the Aadhaar project in AP. The scope of work is huge and it is very difficult target to achieve,” Mr. Bhaskar said.
So far, close to 31 lakh Aadhaar cards have been dispatched in AP of which 13 lakh cards belong to Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. “The scope of the project is huge and there are initial difficulties. There are backlogs and delays but we want to assure that our team is working hard to screen and release the cards quickly,” Mr. Bhaskar assured.
Principal General Manager, BSNL, V. Srinivasan, Director of Postal Services, Mariamma Thomas and other top officials from the Department of Posts were present.
