Aadhar enrollment and updation exercise for 64 lakh students begins in Maharashtra

In a circular published on September 30, the state department asked various schools to ensure that all students who are yet to get their Aadhar cards or have to still undergo their biometric verification for the same should do the same. The circular released by the state reads, “In accordance with the unlock-4 guidelines issued by the state government, facilitation centres are being set up for making Aadhar cards for such students at the local level. Schools should ensure that all the remaining students are covered under the exercise."

Also, as a precautionary against the ongoing pandemic situation, schools are asked to ensure that there is no overcrowding at the facilitation centres and all the COVID-19 related protocols are followed during the process. However, teachers said that initiating this exercise at a point when the novel coronavirus cases are still high across the state is risky. Writing in this regard to the department, Anil Bornare, coordinator of the BJP teachers’ cell stated, “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." The activity is being conducted as the Aadhar card data of students is required to avail of government subsidies, scholarships and other schemes from time to time.