Maharashtra begins Aadhaar enrolment, updation exercise for 64 lakh students

Schools across Maharashtra have been asked to ensure that all students registered under them get their Aadhaar cards in the coming days. Around 64 lakh students

Schools across Maharashtra have been asked to ensure that all students registered under them get their Aadhaar cards in the coming days. Around 64 lakh students across the state are yet to have their Aadhaar cards or have not updated their details.

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In a circular issued on Wednesday, the department asked schools to ensure that all students who are yet to get their Aadhaar cards or are yet to undergo biometric verification for the same should do it. “In accordance with the unlock-4 guidelines issued by the state government, facilitation centres are being set up for making Aadhaar cards for such students at the local level. Schools should ensure that all remaining students are covered under the exercise,” stated the circular.

Schools have been asked to ensure that there is no overcrowding at the facilitation centres and that all the Covid-19-related protocols are followed.

Teachers, however, said that initiating this exercise at a point when Covid-19 cases are still high across the state is risky. “Records of nearly 64 lakh students have to be updated as per the process. This would pose a big risk for schools as they would have a lot of difficulty in working on such a big scale during the ongoing pandemic. We are requesting the government to push the deadline further and withdraw the current circular,” said Anil Bornare, coordinator of the BJP teachers’ cell which has written to the department in this regard.

Aadhaar card data of students is required to avail government subsidies, scholarships and other schemes from time to time.