Chief Secretary reviews progress on Aadhaar penetration across J-K

Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], December 9 : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta on Thursday emphasized upon all the stakeholders to complete the 100 per cent Aadhaar penetration across Jammu and Kashmir, underlining that the Union Territory has completely moved to digital means by offering all the citizen-centric services through online mode and Aadhaar is a prerequisite to avail those services.
The Chief Secretary made these remarks while chairing a meeting to review the Aadhaar saturation across Jammu and Kashmir at Civil Secretariat here in Jammu.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, PDD, H Rajesh Prasad; Commissioner Secretary, Forests, Sanjeev Verma; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, P.K Pole; Commissioner Secretary, Information Technology, Prerna Puri; Secretary Health and Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar; Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar, CGM, BSNL, all Deputy Commissioners and other concerned officers both in person and through video conferencing.
Addressing the officers, Mehta highlighted, "Aadhaar is a unique identity of every citizen by which they are able to avail any government service in hassle-free manner."
He directed all the Deputy Commissioners to take up the Aadhaar saturation in mission mode so that effective and efficient public services are provided to the people.
The Chief Secretary enjoined upon the DCs to formulate a re-deployment plan for optimum utilisation of Aadhaar stations in order to achieve 100 per cent penetration.
"Mobilise people to Aadhaar stations through awareness campaigns, and local representatives", Mehta instructed the DCs.
The Chief Secretary further asked the DCs to hold meetings of District Level Aadhaar Monitoring Committee meetings on a regular basis in order to assess the requirement of additional enrollment and update centres timely and ensure the availability of these centres in uncovered areas.
He directed the officers to start the Aadhaar Linked Birth Registration (ALBR) by the 15th of this month in all district hospitals and subsequently launch the Civil Registration System (CRS) by the end of this month across Jammu and Kashmir.
During the meeting, Commissioner Secretary Information Technology informed that overall Aadhaar saturation has increased from 81 per cent to 89 per cent from the last one year across Jammu and Kashmir and till date around 1.21 crore Aadhaars have been generated till date.
She further informed the meeting that the operational Aadhaar centres across the UT have increased from 331 to 1105 with additional 250 enrollment stations being made operational from January 2023.
Meanwhile, Mehta also reviewed the progress on 4G connectivity saturation of BSNL across the 410 sites of Jammu and Kashmir under the Universal Service Obligation Fund of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary directed all the DCs to transfer the land of these sites to BSNL expeditiously so that better connectivity is provided to all the far-flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Pendencies should be cleared expeditiously by prioritising uncovered areas," Mehta directed the DCs.
The Chief Secretary further enjoined upon the DCs and officers to BSNL to conduct the joint survey pf pending sites within a week's time so that the works for establishing the towers and other infrastructure is started timely.
During the meeting, CGM and BSNL gave a detailed briefing on the 4G saturation across Jammu and Kashmir.