By IANS,
Jaipur: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday gave Aadhaar awards to district officials from three states for their efforts to improve delivery of services to people using the scheme.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi handed the 21st crore Aadhar number to Bali Devi of Purawar village of Udaipur.
Officials from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra were given Aadhaar Governance and Aadhaar Excellence Awards for their efforts to improve the services delivery to people and bring transparency in governance on the second anniversary of Aadhaar at Dudu here. Two officials, including one from a government oil company was also awarded.
The Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery comprises public distribution system in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, social security payment in Aurangabad in Maharashtra, LPG cylinder delivery in Mysore in Karnataka, MGNREGS payments in Ramgarh in Jharkhand and old-age pension payments in West Tripura.
In attendance were Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahuluwalia, Minister of State for Science and Technology Ashwani Kumar and Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot.
Aadhaar was launched in 2010 to provide an irrefutable proof of identity to all citizens of India making it the world’s largest biometric-based identity database.
The Unique Identification Authority of India is running various pilots of Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery like public distribution system in the country.