Mangalore: Absence of officials at KDP meet irks Rai; smart card explained

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NM)

Mangalore, Jul 11: Absence of higher officials during the first quarterly Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) review meeting irked district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai on Thursday, July 11.

Speaking at the review meeting to assess the progress of development works in Dakshina Kannada (DK), the district in-charge minister warned of strict disciplinary action if the department heads failed to take part in the KDP meetings.

Some of the junior officials, who did not seem to know much about the status of development works, fumbled for answers when the minister questioned them.

NPR identity card to ease Aadhar card process

Rai said there is confusion among people about the importance of Aadhar Card and National Population Registration (NPR) identity card (smart card). He asked the officials concerned to create more awareness about their importance.

Explaining about the present progress, additional deputy commissioner K Dayananda said, "Of the 20-odd lac population in the district, only around 3,95,854 people have registered for Aadhar card and about 5,63,000 people have registered for NPR, which is less than 25 percent of the entire population."

Since there are two cards brought out at the same time, there is a confusion as to which was more important.

Dayananda said, “Both are equally important. It is not enough to registrar on one and ignore the other. However, those who registrar on NPR first will find it easy to get Aadhar card as both works are done from the same software. However, the task is difficult if it’s done vice-versa.”

Presently, there are 16 centres and 54 kits in place to undertake NPR registration while there are 17 centres and 88 kits for Aadhar card registration. Children below 5 years are not eligible to registrar for NPR while Aadhar card does not have age bar. Besides, NPR registration is done only at the enumeration block while Aadhar registration is allowed anywhere in the country, Dayanand explained.

Besides, Rai regretted the snail’s pace at which work on multi-village water supply scheme was going on in the district. He strictly ordered the officials to speed up the work.

MLA J R Lobo reiterated the immediate necessity of flyover at Nanthur and Pumpwell backed by proper plan. He also took the officials of the tourism department to task. He asked the authorities to provide title deeds of properties to the families at Bengre.

MLA Mohiuddin Bava, chief executive office of DK zilla panchayat Dr K N Vijayprakash, DC N Prakash, police commissioner Manish Karbikar, SP Abhishek Goyal, MCC commissioner Ajith Hegde, president of zilla panchayat Koragappa Naik and others were present at the review meeting.