PIB Delhi – Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar will inaugurate newly constructed AadhaarSeva Kendra (ASK) facility at Varanasi , Gonda, Moradabad and Saharanpur, UP on 21st December 2021 through video conferencing in presence of Dignitaries who shall be joining remotely from above mentioned locations. These ASKs have been established by UIDAI under the Ministry of Electronics and IT under “Digital India Program”. UIDAI is planning to set up a total of 166 such kendras in 122 cities across India. These centres at Varanasi, Gonda, Moradabad and Saharanpur shall be 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th respectively in the state of UP after Agra, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Ghaziabad & Meerut, and soon the UIDAI will start ASK at Gorakhpur. Through ASK, the Government aims to provide all Aadhaar enabled services at a one stop Center to the citizens thereby ensuring ease of living and ease of doing business.
It is also informed that the Government of India has efficiently utilised the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) in public service delivery and to empower the citizens. Around 313 central government schemes have so far been notified to use Aadhaar for leak-proof delivery of various social welfare benefits like PM-KISAN, PM AawaasYojana, PM Jan ArogyaYojana, PAHAL, MGNREGA, National Social Security Assistance Programme, PDS (in-kind benefits through Aadhaar authentication)etc. More than 250 state welfare schemes have also been notified to use Aadhaar. Clear provisions are there to ensure no denial of benefit in case of failure to authenticate. The savings made to public exchequer owing to use of Aadhaar and DBT, primarily due to weeding out of fake and duplicate beneficiaries, have been estimated to be to the tune of Rupees 1.78 lakh crores (as on Mar 2020; as per DBT Mission, Cabinet Secretariat)
JAM trinity has proved to be a game-changer and helped reaching out to the citizens living in the farthest corners of the country, during the coronavirus pandemic. Learning from India’s success story of leveraging Aadhaar in Governance, A lot of countries have shown active interest in understanding the Aadhaar experience and have reached out to UIDAI for the same. UIDAI ‘AadhaarSeva Kendra’ or ASK is a single stop destination for all Aadhaar related services for the residents. The ASKs offer dedicated Aadhaar enrolment and update services to residents in a state-of-the-art environment. AadhaarSeva Kendra offers a comfortable air-conditioned environment to residents. ASK is citizen centric and ASK managers are trained to reach out to residents and resolve issues on priority for children, senior citizens and specially abled persons. Token system is also being implemented for crowd management which provides efficient service to residents.
An Online Appointment System is available for the ASK which helps in saving time for citizens and eases out crowd at the centre. Residents who have online appointment are served at specified window. There is a token counter at the entrance which provides tokens to walk-in residents on first come first serve basis. A help desk is functional at the entrance for providing support to residents and addressing their queries. Verifiers have been deployed to check documents that are uploaded at time of enrolment and update of Aadhaar. This ensures that data quality is maintained during each transaction. The payments system is through cash and digital payment is promoted through google pay/ paytm / UPI etc. ASK can accommodate around 80 persons inside while waiting for their turn. ASKs are operational from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM on all seven days of the week and are closed only on public holidays. While Aadhaar Enrolment is free, a nominal charge of Rs. 50/- is payable for demographic update and Rs.100/- for biometric update with or without demographic update.
