Having stabilised the operation of capturing biometric details of people under the National Population Register (NPR) programme in nine districts, the authorities are planning to extend it to four more districts by July first week.
The districts to be covered in the next phase of NPR operation are Vellore, Salem, Nagapattinam and Ramanathapuram.
A senior official says the idea is to cover the entire State by March next year.
At present, the programme is under way in Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Karur, Madurai, Perambalur, Tiruvannamalai and Erode. Officials of the Census Department along with those of the Revenue department are taking steps to capture the biometric particulars, such as fingerprints and iris prints by arranging camps.
While capturing the biometric parameters, only those aged five and above are being covered.
The current exercise has been preceded by the collection of demographic identity details from all residents during June-July 2010 alongside the Census house-listing operation.
The data collected two years ago have all been scanned.
For the purpose of NPR, a person who has resided in a local area for six months or more or one who intends to reside in the area for the next 6 months or more is considered a usual resident. The NPR will have the database of only such persons.
Biometric details
As per the plan, after the completion of the capture of biometric details as per the protocol laid down by the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), the entire data will be uploaded to the UIDAI - Central ID Repository, seeking assignment of numbers to the usual residents.
Once the numbers are given, the key identity particulars of the residents along with photographs will be prepared as the Local Registers of Usual Residents.
These registers will be made available to the public for inviting objections or deletions or correction.
In this regard, the services of respective local bodies will be utilised.
Eventually, each will be given a resident identity card, which will contain his or her unique number.
It has also been proposed to have changes concerning the status of residents reflected in the cards.
As one of the objectives of the preparation of the NPR is to achieve e-governance application, the authorities are collecting, at the camps, other data of residents such as family card, driving licence, passport, electors’ photo identity card and Permanent Account Numbers.
In Tamil Nadu, Bharat Electronics Limited is the agency for NPR data entry and biometric parameters’ capture.
Asked what a person should do if one has enrolled oneself with a registrar of the UIDAI, the official replied the person should still attend NPR camp and inform the officials about the number given by the UIDAI to him or her.
There is no need for providing the biometric details again.
However, all the data collected under the NPR will be referred to the UIDAI for elimination of duplication.
Maximum coverage
A perusal of the status report of the progress of the NPR programme reveals that as on June 20, about 42.6 lakh persons in the nine districts were covered.
Of a total of 4,611 villages/towns, 2,045 areas were covered. Ariyalur and Perambalur achieved the maximum coverage with about 73 per cent and 63 per cent of the targeted population.
The lowest was in Madurai and Tiruvannamalai, where the progress rate was around 10 per cent.
The launch of the process of capturing of biometrics was not concurrent in the districts.
In Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Cuddalore, it began in June 2011 followed by Ariyalur and Perambalur in January and the remaining four districts in March 2012.
