Akshaya to join Keltron in enrolment works

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
21 Mar 2011

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Succumbing to stiff objection from various quarters, the State Government revoked its earlier decision which had denied Akshaya role in the enrolment works for the nation's flagship Unique Identification (UID) Project in Thiruvananthapuram district and assigned the same to Keltron.


The government has now decided that Keltron and Akshaya will jointly do the enrolment works both in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha districts where UID enrolment had been piloted last month.

While Keltron will cover the urban areas in both these districts, Akshaya will cover the rural areas.

A modified government order in this regard was issued by the State Information Technology department the other day.

The Askshya entrepreneurs were up in arms against the earlier decision of the government to hand over the enrolment of UID in entire Thiruvananthapuram district to Keltron. It was a jolt to the 200odd Akshaya entrepreneurs who were gearing up to take up the enrolment works following an earlier assurance from the government.

Enrolment to UID is quite an attractive affair as the UID Authority will pay around `38 for enrolling each person.

Akshaya entrepreneurs in Alappuzha district had already enrolled at least 1,000

persons.

"We are receiving a good response from the people towards UID enrolment. Even Akshaya entrepreneurs from other districts are coming down to Alappuzha district to get enrolled," said All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Association president T S Chandran.

The association had earlier submitted memorandum to the Chief Minister against the decision to hand over the enrolment works in Thiruvananthapuram to Keltron.

It was after much dillydallying that the State Government had launched UID enrolment here on February 24.

Use of propriety software for the enrolment and ideological objections raised by certain quarters over the collection of personal data of individuals had indeed delayed the launch of UID enrolment in Kerala.

The UID project, popularly known as Aadhaar, envisages maintaining a data base of the personal information including biometric identification marks of all citizens of India and issuing an Unique Identification number and identity card to each citizen.

Many other states are far ahead in the enrolment process.