Aadhar enrolment: Pathanamthitta leads

Direct benefit transfer scheme launched in February

State’s youngest district of Pathanamthitta has attained a commendable achievement in Aadhar enrolment.

G. Murukan, Akshaya district coordinator, told The Hindu that the district had achieved 99.71 per cent of Aadhar enrolment, excluding duplication, as on Friday. This could, perhaps, be the highest enrolment rate in the State.

Of the total population of 11,95,537 in the district, the Akshaya centres alone carried out enrolment of 7,74,200 people as on Friday, Mr. Murukan said.

He said females in the age group of 16 to 30 years constituted 13.09 per cent of the Aadhar enrolment, as compared to the 11.81 per cent enrolment made in the same age group among males in the district.

Mr. Murukan said the Akshaya district unit had organised special camps for Aadhar enrolment for scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, other backward communities, and students belonging to minority sections who came under the post and pre-metric scholarship schemes.

Akshaya had also organised 54 special camps in association with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to cover pregnant women in the district who came under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY).

House visits

According to Mr. Murukan, fully equipped teams of Akshaya Centres also carried out house visits for Aadhar enrolment of bedridden people. As many as 200 bedridden persons had already been enrolled during the house visits, he said.

e-district, direct benefit transfer

District Collector V.N. Jithendran said all 68 village offices as well as the 87 Akshaya centres in the district were fully equipped to meet the requirements of Aadhar enrolment, and to issue of certificates as part of the e-district project.

Mr Jithendran said the district had switched over to Aadhar-enabled direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme to transfer the benefits of Janani Suraksha Yojana scheme of the NRHM to beneficiaries from the second week of February. So far, a total of 83 women were benefitted with the DBT scheme.

As many as 23 types of certificates, including that of income, community and nativity, were being issued online from December 4, 2012, the Collector said.

He said not less than 72,000 certificates had been issued online through the Akshaya centres in the district during the past four months.

Best entrepreneur

Mr Murkan said Pathanamthitta had a lot more to cheer, as it housed the best Akshaya entrepreneur in the State, T.A. Shajahan. Mr. Shajahan was also selected for the national award for Common Service Entrepreneurs of 2012.