Bihar ranks a “disappointing” 16 among the 29 states and seven Union Territories in opening digital lockers as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India campaign.
Only 20,266 digital lockers have been opened in Bihar over the past two-and-a-half months, whereas neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Jharkhand are among the top four states under this initiative aimed at providing online storage space for digital versions of certificates and documents, such as PAN card, passport and marksheets.
Maharashtra tops the list with 1,05,766 people having opened the digital lockers till date.
Allegations have been made that the Nitish Kumar government did not show much interest in this scheme of the Modi government. “This scheme was launched at a time when Nitish was trying to falsify every initiative of Modi. The
state government here never took a keen interest in promoting this unique scheme, which aimed at serving residents without involvement of any expense to them,” said a senior BJP leader under condition of anonymity.
Senior officials in the state information technology (IT) department attributed the “poor” status in digital locker scheme to low Aadhaar coverage in the state. “Aadhaar is mandatory for creating digital lockers but only 60 per cent of the total population are covered under Aadhaar till date,” said S. Siddhartha, secretary, IT department.
As per an official statement released by Unique Identification
Authority of India (Uidai) on September 17, over 6 crore people out of Bihar’s total population of 10.5 crore have been generated Aadhaar numbers.
The Union government has created an Aadhaar-linked portal, https://digitallocker.gov.in, to host digital lockers. A person needs Aadhaar number to register or sign up on the portal. Each Aadhaar-linked digital locker comes with 1GB of free memory space. The locker has five segments: “My Certificates”, “My Profile”, “My Issuer”, “My Requester” and “Directories”. To ensure the security of online documents, a two-step authentication system has been put in place that will combine the Aadhaar number and an OTP (one-time password) sent to the registered mobile number. One only needs to submit an “online link” to the stored documents, which can then be accessed and verified by various government and private agencies. The e-locker provides a facility to digitally sign e-documents. The “e-storage” facility precludes the need to lug around a big file of documents or get photocopies or attestations while applying for a bank account, passport or gas connection.
Apart from low Aadhaar coverage, the IT secretary also attributed the prevailing election model code of conduct for slow progress in digital locker scheme in the state. “We started the digital locker campaign during Digital India week in first week of July. We had planned to start an exhaustive statewide campaign to expedite the digital locker coverage but the same could not be executed due to the upcoming Assembly elections. Now that the model code of conduct is in effect, we would have to wait for another two-three months (till the formation of the new government) to put thrust on this scheme in the state,” said Siddhartha.
While the officials are putting the blame on low Aadhaar coverage and model code of conduct, another reason for poor progress in the digital locker scheme in Bihar is attributed to low internet penetration in the state. As per census 2011, Bihar has below 1 per cent of total households Internet users — the lowest in India.
What is digital locker?
An online storage for digital versions of certificates and documents
What kind of documents can we keep in the digital locker?
Any confidential document, including your academic certificates, birth and caste certificates, utility bills and so o
What are the benefits?
Does away with need to handle physical documents, get them photocopied or attested
How to access digital locker?
Sign for the locker at www.digitallocker.gov.in with Aadhaar and cellphone number
