Guidelines for UID roll-out delayed

BANGALORE, INDIA: In order to study the UID project more closely and understand each and every aspect of this mammoth task, the UIDAI is delaying the first draft of UID guidelines.

According to M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, Department of E-governance, Government of Karnataka, the guidelines have been postponed by two months and is most likely to come in January 2010.

Quoting UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, Vidyashankar said, “The expected set of guidelines will come by first month of coming year. It got delayed because the central department borrowed time to consult with a few research firms and deeply analyze the project from all aspects.”

During a previous interaction, he had told CIOL that Karnataka e-Governance Department was waiting for the guidelines from the UIDAI center and said that guidelines were expected to come in November.

He informed that Karnataka roll-out would commence in January after the guidelines are shared.

“The UID roll-out will be a complete state-wide practice. It may start with Bangalore as the first destination, but within a week's time the implementation would start across Karnataka. The project is most likely to take around one and a half year to complete,” he said.

Vidyashankar opined that the roll-out will be easier in the rural areas, as compared to the urban regions like Bangalore, since the city has huge floating population.

As reported earlier, the entire process of implementation would be chartered in the guidelines, and the state department would be responsible for regulating operational issues like the training and roll-out process following it.

The department has already formed a team of four officials namely Dr. Ravindran, (CEO of Center of E-Governance, Govt of Karnataka), T. Srinivasan (Senior Programmer at e-Governance Secretariat), a senior consultant, and Vidyashankar.