SHILLONG: Over 15 percent of the population in Meghalaya has enrolled for Aadhaar numbers amid the opt-out campaign in the state.
Out of the total projected population of 32,30,132 in Meghalaya, the total Aadhaar cards issued is 5,09,964 which will be 15.79 per cent of the population.
While Tripura tops the list, Assam has the least number of Aadhaar card holders.
Earlier, 1,202 persons who had enrolled for the unique number signed documents to withdraw from the scheme due to the campaign of the Meghalaya People’s Committee on Aadhaar (MPCA).
An official at the Guwahati regional office of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) dealing with Aadhaar enrolment in the North East said the headquarters will examine the issue of people opting out of Aadhaar.
According to the official, students and the elderly will face problem if they opted out of the scheme because the former cannot avail themselves of scholarships and the latter will not get pension.
“Aadhaar number is required for admission in premier institutions across the country and even a large number of corporate sector companies are seeking Aadhaar numbers for job applicants,” he said.
The official also added that the Supreme Court had made it mandatory to link PAN with Aadhaar numbers.
According to the official, Aadhaar is a digital identity and a powerful instrument which enables Indian citizens to establish their identity anywhere at any time.
‘Aadhaar a cleaning exercise’
The move to link bank accounts and mobile numbers with Aadhaar is another cleaning exercise, the official pointed out and said, “It is laying the foundation of a new, clean and transparent India free of fakes, ghosts and duplicates.”
The official added that linking bank accounts with Aadhaar is to weed out bogus, fictitious and benami accounts used for money laundering, terror funding, tax evasion, fraud, crime and parking ill-gotten wealth, among others.
“Verification of bank accounts with Aadhaar enhances one’s own security and moreover, Aadhaar verification of bank accounts will help expose real executors behind shell companies, benami operators, tax evaders, launderers and those who siphon off public money or funding terror,” the official added.