The Maharashtra government has decided to allocate as many as 3,600 'tablets' to anganwadi supervisors to speed up the process of Aadhaar enrolment. "Aadhaar registration process will be done on a priority basis and as many as 3,600 anganwadi supervisors and 500 rural hospitals will be given tabs by June-end," Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick told reporters in Mumbai. Through this, the enrolment work of children between 5 to 18 years and zero to five years will be completed, the top bureaucrat said. It has been decided to start Aadhaar registration of newborns at rural hospitals, he added. Mullick today held a video conferencing and interactive session with Divisional Commissioners, District Collectors, Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officers and Municipal Commissioners of the state. The chief secretary also reviewed the progress of various projects launched in the past two years. "Almost everyone in the state above 18 years of age has been registered under the Aadhaar programme," the senior IAS officer said. However, 63.30 lakh people in zero to five and five to 18 years age groups are yet to be enrolled and provided unique identification numbers, he said. "Distribution of tabs will help in speeding up Aadhaar enrolment drive in aganwadis (government-run child care centres) and rural hospitals," the official said. Most of the population not covered under Aadhaar resides in districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar, Pune, Nagpur, Jalgaon, Solapur and Nanded. These nine districts have 42 lakh people who are yet to be given unique identification numbers, Mullick said.
