The Times of India             12.07.2013

Biometric enrollment covers 39 wards of Varanasi

VARANASI: The work under the National Population Register Biometric Enrollment Plan, has been covered in 39 wards of the Bhelupur zone out of the total 90 wards of the city.

The work is in progress at Chittupur ward in Dashashwamedh zone. The Varanasi Municipal Corporation is the implementation agency of the enrollment plan in the district and additional municipal commissioner Sachchidanand Singh is the officer in-charge of the project.

More interestingly those in the VMC office for maintenance of NPR are not even aware of a Know your residence (KYR) form, though they give the form to every family to fill as based on which the rest of the work is done of NPR.

The staff of population register office at VMC said in the first phase of the national census 2011, domestic particulars of people were collected for the NPR whereas in the second phase of the enrollment process, the collection of biometric particulars of everyone over the age of five years will covered. Apart from this, the second phase will also cover domestic particulars of those who were missed out in the first phase of the national census 2011.

Biometric enrollment plan for NPR is being implemented via a public private partnership (PPP) model in which the domestic particulars and other manual aspects are being looked after by the VMC whereas the technological aspect of the process is being covered by a Pune based private company, Myphasis, which is working under the guidance of the government authorised company ECIL.

According to Manish Sharma, the project manager of the company, under the process every family of the ward being covered under the plan is given a Know your residence (KYR) form by aanganwadi workers hired by VMC for the purpose.

In this form, details of ID cards such as ration cards, MNREGA card number, voters' ID card, PAN card, driving licence number, passport details, LPG connection details are to be mentioned by all the family members.

After all these details are verified by the implementing agency, collection of biometric particulars, including photographs, finger prints and retinal impressions, is done. To collect these biometric inputs, one centre is set up in every ward which is being covered under the enrollment plan.

For persons with disability, the facility of collection of biometric details would be provided at home as per the norms, however, the VMC office could not provide details about the disabled people who had been provided the facility at their home.

After the biometric enrollment there will be de-duplication and issuance of Unique Identification Numbers. And finally a smart card, Resident Identity Card, will be given to the applicant which has a micro-processor chip of 64 Kb capacity. The demographic and a few biometric attributes of each individual will be personalised in this chip, which would enable an off-line authentication of individual at remote locations using hand-held devices.

After the biometric enrollment there will be de-duplication and issuance of Unique Identification Numbers. And finally a smart card, Resident Identity Card, will be given to the applicant which has a micro-processor chip of 64 Kb capacity. The demographic and a few biometric attributes of each individual will be personalised in this chip, which would enable an off-line authentication of individual at remote locations using hand-held devices.

The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of usual residents of the country and it is prepared at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.

The Statesman             12.07.2013