The issuing of Unique Identification Number to the citizens is getting delayed due to a huge capacity crunch in the central server located in Bangalore, according to Mr J. Satyanarayan, Chief Commissioner of Land Administration and Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh.

“There is 2-3 month delay in generating the number and giving it to the citizens,” he said, at Connect 2011.

“Andhra Pradesh will capture all the information of its 8 crore people for the project by March. While capturing the details of people is a challenge, there is the bigger bottleneck of generating that number from the central server, he said.

“Despite having the latest equipment, there is a delay,” he said.

The Government has been working on the project for the last five years. The concept is simple — provide an identification proof while having an interface with the government.

This will avoid the hardship of producing evidence of the person or the proof of residence in the form or a ration card or driving licence. The UID is not a proof of the person's citizenship but a proof of residence.

The challenge will be how effectively the number is used by the government.

While the concept is good, the use of the UID number if not put to use, will jeopardise the entire project, which is being implemented at a cost of over Rs 3,000 crore, he said.

“We need to create applications that will replace many IDs and use only the UID. For this, we need to work in an integrated manner with many stakeholders, including the government and industry,” he said.

Mr Satyanarayana said efforts are being made to give legislative powers to the UID.

>raja@thehindu.co.in

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