Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 19: The census authorities of Jammu district have decided to run four Aadhar camps in banks on pilot basis. To begin with, four Aadhar machines will be shifted to four different branches of HDFC and ICICI banks in order to achieve better results in Aadhar coverage in the district.
The pilot project has been undertaken in HDFC bank branches at Bahu Plaza, R S Pura and Akhnoor and the ICICI branch at Nagrota. The initiative has been undertaken in order to ensure effective monitoring and supervision over Aadhar operators and to tide over the issue of infrastructural deficits in usual centres.
The Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Simrandeep Singh, who is also the District Registrar of Census, said that the pilot project is simply aimed to provide better services to people who turn up to centres for enrolment. He mentioned, “at times an old lady goes to an Aadhar centre from a village but her effort turns out futile because there is no electricity in the Tehsil Office where Aadhar Centres usually function”.
He said that a particular Aadhar machine is supposed to capture the biometrics of 100 people on a given day from 10 am to 4 pm. However, during various review meetings, it has been observed that only 40-70 people get covered. Various reasons brought out by Aadhar operators for this under performance are erratic power supply and inadequate infrastructure in the Aadhar centres.
“Further, due to little accommodation in some Tehsil Offices, the Aadhar Centres are functioning in some other Government buildings as a result of which effective supervision over Aadhar operators is not possible and at such places the operators were either reporting late on duties or were absent altogether”, he further said.
As such, HDFC and ICICI bank branches have been roped in under the Corporate Social Responsibility to provide a separate cabin with full infrastructure and full power back up from 10 am to 4 pm to Aadhar machines enabling them to function up to their optimum capacity. Even CCTV cameras will keep an eye on Aadhar teams. Moreover, the Bank Managers of these four branches will give daily attendance to the Deputy Commissioner directly and only after satisfactory reports, salaries would be disbursed to the operators.
R S Pura HDFC branch would cover entire population of R S Pura subdivision comprising Suchetgarh and R S Pura Tehsils while as the Nagrota branch of ICICI would cater to entire Nagrota and Dansal Tehsils. The Akhnoor HDFC branch will cater to entire Akhnoor and Khour subdivision comprising of six Tehsils. Similarly, the Bahu Plaza branch of HDFC would cater to entire Jammu Municipal Corporation area. The usual centres in Tehsils will, however, continue to function as such.
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