UID roll-out: K'taka waiting for guidelines

BANGALORE, INDIA: After taking the onus of piloting the UID project in the state, Karnataka e-Governance department has gone in hibernation, waiting for the guidelines from the UIDAI center.

As the name suggests, the expected guidelines are a set of instructions which the government of Karnataka would follow in the UID project.

Speaking to CIOL, M.N.Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, e-Governance Department, said, the government is waiting for the guidelines.

“We are just waiting for the guidelines and based on it, we would plan our roll-out,” he said. “The guidelines would decide upon the nuts and bolts of the implementation like how the roll-out, training would go, who would be the registering authority etc. In other words it would talk about the nuts and bolts of the implementation.”

He said the government is expecting the guidelines to come by any time in November.

Vidyashankar informed that the UIDAI would alone decide on the expected data center and the technical team.

“Having said that, what information we have in hand is, this (the entire UID process) would be through public-private partnership model. The Center would select a registering authority either from LIC, banks, post offices or any other department, where individuals would submit their forms and register for UID.

He said, “We know that there would be a registering authority, but who would be it is what we are waiting for.”

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

However, from its own side, the department has formed a team of four officials including Vidyashankar. The other members are Dr. Ravindran, (CEO of Center of E-Governance, Govt of Karnataka), T. Srinivasan (Senior Programmer at e-Governance Secretariat), and a senior consultant.

Post receiving the guidelines, this team is expected to meet the UIDAI team lead by Nandan Nilekani in Delhi for taking the guideline forward.