70 crore Indians have been issued Aadhaar numbers

NEW DELHI: Around 70 crore citizens across the country have till now received their unique identification (Aadhaar) number. According to unique identification authority of India (UIDAI), nine states, including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, have crossed 90% enrolment, while 16 states have over 70% coverage.

The enrolments for Aadhaar in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, which accounts for 34 crore population, have been accelerated after it was handed over to UIDAI.

As on date, Aadhaar numbers have been issued to 8.93 crore citizens in these states, which is 26% of the target population.

After the BJP government took charge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked UIDAI to fast-track the enrolment process. The decision was also taken to link Aadhaar with several government welfare schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, NREGA, PDS and DBTL along with transfer of pensions and scholarships.

The Modi dispensation is expected to make it mandatory to link mobile SIM connections with Aadhaar number to weed out ghost users and curb the misuse of mobile phones for any terrorist act, extortion or other offences.

An official said that government wants to make Aadhaar compulsory for acquiring both new and old mobile phone connections. However, an official said the move may take some time as the entire population of the country does not have the unique identification number yet.

The PM has set the deadline of June next year for covering the entire 1.2 billion population under the Aadhaar project.

An official said that once the entire population is covered under the project, the government would be able to use Aadhaar database for rolling out various social welfare scheme which could check huge pilferages.