Second phase of biometric collection in Uttar Pradesh takes form

Biometric data collection for Aadhaar UID numbers and the National Population Register has begun after a gap of nearly one year in Uttar Pradesh.

Reported by The Indian Express, local district administrators have yet to make necessary preparations for organizing camps, but the wheels are now officially in motion for collection to begin and select people, including Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, his wife Dimple Yadav and their three children have already had their biometrics collected.

Initially, this exercise will remain confined to urban areas. The Government of India recent transferred the task of collecting biometrics of people in Uttar Pradesh from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to the Directorate of Census Operations.

According to the director of Census Operations in Uttar Pradesh, biometric data will be collected by three central public sector units. Specifically, these units include, Bharat Electronics, Electronic Corporation of India and Indian Telephone Industries. The state has been divided in three parts and allocated to these agencies for this exercise.

This most recent phase of biometric collection in Uttar Pradesh is the second phase overall. In the first phase, the UIDAI reportedly enrolled roughly 10 million UID numbers across 59 separate districts of Uttar Pradesh. According to the report in The Indian Express, those who have already received their Aadhaar numbers will still have to visit collection camps, but agencies will only be registering their Aadhaar number. Others will have their biometric details collected at the district camps.

As reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, the UIDAI recently discovered 384,000 false Aadhaar numbers of people enrolled under a biometrics exception clause. Also complicating this large-scale collection effort, a public interest litigation in India has challenged the legal basis of the UIDAI and looks to put the issuance of Aadhaar numbers on hold.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometrics  |  civil ID  |  fingerprint  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  government  |  identification