PANAJI: With the state government entering into an agreement with the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) on Thursday, Goa would become the first state in the country to be fully covered under the project and its citizens given ID cards.

The memorandum was signed by Mr Anand Sherkhane, joint secretary (budget) on behalf of state government and Mr Sanjay Joshi, additional director general, UIDAI. The Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat was present on the occasion.
The allotment of unique ID number to each citizen of India is an ambitious and unique project of the government of India. As envisaged in the programme, each citizen would be allotted a unique identification.
The unique identification would include three biometric variables; i.e. finger prints of both hands and images of iris and face. The demographic variables would include name, age, address and father’s name of every individual.
In order to ensure the full coverage, major departments in the state government dealing with the major beneficiary-oriented schemes would be designated as registrars and their role is considered vital in the success of UID project.
Those present during the signing of MoU were the Chief Secretary, Mr Sanjay Kumar Shrivastava, Finance Secretary, Mr Uddipta Ray, Civil Supplies Secretary, Mr D C Sahoo, General Administration Secretary, Mr Kumaraswamy, joint secretary (debt management unit) Mr Anupam Kishore, Director Information Technology, Mr Pravin Chandekar, etc.
Earlier, speaking at a meeting before signing of MoU the Chief Secretary highlighted the importance of the project and spoke of the efforts to make Goa the first among all the states of the country to be covered fully under the project with every citizen getting the UID cards. The Additional Director General, UID, government of India, in his address highlighted the important aspects of the project and urged total support from the state government in completion of the project in time. The meeting was also attended by secretaries of government of Goa, Director Census Operations, State Informatics Office, NIC-Goa unit, and directors of major state government departments.