e-Shakti and Aadhaar Cards in Bihar

Bihar Government has come up with an innovative idea in the search for an alternative to Aadhaar Unique ID Cards. The Govt. of Bihar has decided to provide e-Shakti biometric cards to all its 10 crore citizens. The Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar has already directed department of rural development to work on this proposal. The Minister of rural development Nitish Mishra disclosed the details of e-Shakti project. The e-Shakti cards will be issued simultaneously issued along with Aadhaar Cards. You may be asked to submit certain documents while enrolling for Aadhaar Cards. In the initial stage, the Govt. will carry out common survey of people for both the e-Shakti and Unique Identification (UID) cards. Once the details are gathered, the processes of e-Shakti and Aadhaar will commence after a formal nod by the cabinet.

The Govt. of Bihar has estimated that the project is likely to cost about Rs 750 – Rs 1,000 crore and will take at least two years to complete. The e-Shakti cards can be used for the all the purposes and services that are offered under UID Aadhaar Cards. The project e-Shakti was iniitally launched by Nitish Kumar in February 2009 to provide good governance (sushasan) to the rural masses of Bihar. The project got good response from the center and think tanks of the good governance and Bihar’s ‘e-Shakti’ was finally chosen by the UIDAI as an example for issue of Aadhaar cards across the country.

Both e-Shakti and UID cards will be distributed based on 2011 census. Both the projects will now be carried out simultaneously after collecting data. Govt. is likely to appoint vendors for the implementation of e-Shati and UID Projects. Present vendor, Smaarftech Technologies will prepare 2.5 crore biometric cards. Govt. will soon open more enrollment camps and centers for the registration process.