UID Aadhaar Cards Enrollment in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry

The process of issue of Aadhaar Unique Identity Cards (UID) has begun in Tamil Nadu during January 2011. The Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension and Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy has launched the prestigious project of Aadhaar enrollment with much fanfare. The project has also been launched in Pondicherry Union Territory. The UID Aadhaar Card is set to be integrated with Smart Cards to be rolled out by the government for Public Distribution Systems in Pondicherry / Puducherry. The ration cards will be replaced by UID cards. Pondicherry was the first in the country to link a major public service like PDS with the Aadhaar UID Cards.

The Aadhar issue process in Puducherry will be implemented in three phases. The first phase would be a two week pilot phase at Pillaichavadi. The second phase would cover the entire Puducherry region, which consists of 8,71,340 residents. The third phase of the Aadhaar in Pondicherry would cover the regions such as Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, with a combined population of 2,80,921. Those already enrolled can check the status of their cards online.

The Department of Posts and Indian Overseas Bank are acting as Registrars for Aadhaar project in Tamil Nadu. Both the departments will cover the areas wherever they have presence in the state. All the post offices in Tamil Nadu will soon have special counters and trained personnel to collect the required documents , conduct biometric scanning of 10 fingerprints and iris, feed the data in the system, and provide the applicants with an acknowledgement slip. The Aadhaar card will be sent to the registered people through speed post.

The Department of Posts in Tamil Nadu has identified about 460 employees and trained them for the Aadhaar project. The enrollment process will be started by India Post from the second week of June. India Post will set up as many as 461 enrollment stations across the taluks and semi urban areas of Tamil Nadu. Mobile camps also will be established. The Aadhaar project will be started in Punjab, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal very soon. At present, Aadhaar Enrolments are happening in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tripura, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Orissa and Goa.