The Supreme Court of India has declined to extend the deadline for the process of linking Aadhaar to various core services beyond March 31, 2018.
This puts Assam in a tight spot as the state has yet to begin the formal process of gathering data for Aadhaar, except for some places in the state in which the process was completed earlier.
The apex court via Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has already been informed by the State Government that Assam would not be able to meet the deadline set for Aadhaar enrollment.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary told the Assam Assembly on February 21 that 92 per cent of the state population did not have the card.
“The Government of Assam has already informed the Supreme Court through the UIDAI that the deadline of March 31 cannot be met. Therefore there is no need to panic of linking the Aadhaar Card.” Patowary informed.
The Minster further assured the general public that the Income Tax Department has already exclude the state of Assam from linking Aadhaar by March 31.
After the Supreme Court scraped the issue of extending the deadline from March 31 for Assam, the state becomes one of the very few states still lagging behind in the process of linking Aadhaar Card with various other core services.
Assam along with Meghalaya falls at the bottom of the chart on providing Aadhaar cards in the Northeast. Meghalaya with 14.3 per cent completion is just above Assam. Tripura on the other hand tops the list with 89. 2 per cent completion of Aadhaar linking processes.
Assam has been lagging behind in the Aadhaar linking processes due to the update of National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) lists.
The due process was slated to begin from December 1 but has been delayed ever since.
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification code issued by the Unique identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to all the citizens of the country.
Once the Aadhaar cards are given out to the applicants, they will be required to link their Aadhaar details with their bank accounts, phone numbers and government welfare schemes etc.