18K banks branches, post offices have Aadhaar facility now: UIDAI

New Delhi: Less than a year after banks and post offices were asked to set up Aadhaar facility on their premises, as many as 18,000 centres have come up for enrolment and updation of the biometric ID at such locations, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had in July last year asked private as well as public sector banks to set up Aadhaar facility in at least one out of 10 branches.

“Aadhaar centres are being set up in banks and post offices. So far, about 18,000 centres have been set up in their premises and in the remaining places also, centres will be set up,” Pandey told PTI.

Overall, about 26,000 centres are slated to come up at banks and post offices.

The ‘Bank Aadhaar Kendras’ are being set up with a view to making the Aadhaar verification process of bank accounts convenient for people and to ensure that the enrolment takes place in a secure and supervised environment.

About 10,000 branches of private and public sector banks have set up Aadhaar enrolment and updation centres on their premises, compared to over 13,800 branches that need to do so.

“About 8,000 such centres have come up in post offices out of 13,000 that are targeted,” Pandey pointed out.

The UIDAI Chief declined to specify the timeline for achieving the targets set, but emphasised that the process of establishing the remaining centres is underway.

“The fact is that in the last few months they have set up as many as 18,000 centres…banks and post offices have worked very hard for this. In order to bolster security and confidence of people, Aadhaar centres are being shifted to this credible environment where people can get quality service in a secure manner,” he said.

Offering a major breather to banks about a fortnight back, the UIDAI had reduced by half, the daily minimum Aadhaar enrolment or updation targets for the stipulated bank branches.

It said that the bank premises with Aadhaar facility will have to ensure at least eight enrolments or updations in each branch daily from July 1, 2018 – a bar that will be raised to a minimum of 12 transactions per day per branch from October 1, and to 16 from January 1, 2019 onwards.

The banks were, so far, facing a target of logging 16 daily enrolments or updations in each of these branches.