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Biometric registration for issuing Aadhaar (unique identification) numbers would start in the state from Wednesday — the day Left trade unions have called a nationwide strike — with Governor Devanand Konwar.
Census officials said the governor’s unavailability of dates had held up the launch of the process. Earlier, it was scheduled for February 15.
“We could not launch the biometric registration process on February 15 because of unavailability of dates with the governor. But we recently received confirmation from the governor’s office for his availability on February 20. We would officially launch the process for the state on that date,” said a senior officer of directorate of census operations, Bihar, on Monday.
The officials of the census directorate were also in talks with the chief minister’s secretariat on Monday for the confirmation of Nitish Kumar’s registration as well at the launch.
The state government and the directorate of census operations, Bihar, decided to start the registration process under National Population Register (NPR) scheme with the urban areas of 13 districts. Over 10 crore citizens were enrolled in the first stage of NPR.
The biometric registration process is the second step before the Unique Identification Authority of India issues a person the Aadhaar number — a 12-digit individual identification number that can be used for over 600 services.
Around 2 crore Know Your Resident (KYR+) forms that are to be filled and submitted have been distributed to the 13 district administrations from the state capital. Apart from the usual KYR data, these forms record additional resident data such as family details and information regarding whether a person is above poverty line or below poverty line.
Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials, however, iterated its difficulty in starting the process on February 20 because of lack of resources. The civic body is entrusted with the responsibility of setting up biometric registration camps, appointing enumerators and ensuring law and order.
A senior PMC officer said: “We shall try to follow the instructions of the state government to the best of our abilities but majority of our staff is engaged in a socio-economic survey, which would be over by the end of this financial year (March 31).”
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