By Sarang Dastane, TNN | Nov 25, 2012, 05.54 AM IST

PUNE: The city administration is a hopeful body. When it launched its second phase for Aadharenrolments in July this year, it hoped that 80 % of the city residents would register for the ambitious scheme by December. A month away from the deadline it had set for itself, officials did a quick reality check and brought down the registrationtarget to 60 %. However, even now less than 50 % of the city’s residents have registered for Aadhar even as those who did register last year await their unique identification numbers.In fact, a recent report on registrations indicates that enrolments haven’t picked momentum even in the cantonments, municipal councils and rural parts of Pune district. Only 54 % registrations have been completed in municipal areas and 30% in cantonments and the 13 talukas that fall under Pune district. The district’s overall scorecard on enrolments thus paints a grim picture__ a good 65 % of Pune district’s citizens are not yet registered.

Authorities blame dearth of centres, trained manpower as well as citizen apathy towards the project in general as the key reason for poor enrolments. District collector Vikas Deshmukh, who is now taking steps to expedite registrations said that as many as 200 additional centers will be set up and 200 additional machines installed in the city and rural parts in the near future. “As per the plan, 80 % UID registrations were expected to be done by December 2011, which is now a difficult target. However, we are now planning to touch a 60% mark by December. Arrangements are being made for this. The locations for the new centres have been identified,” he said