This Saturday will mark the launch of country’s first service integrated Aadhaar card. Rajasthan will be the first state to have the experience as prime minister Manmohan Singh will launch the service on Saturday in Dudu.

The function, marking the second anniversary of Aadhaar’s launch, will also be attended by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi along with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani, finance minister P Chidambaram and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

“The government is rolling out Aadhaar-enabled service delivery initiatives in 51 districts across the country by the end of this financial year,” said Nilekani at a pre-launch press conference in New Delhi. The Aadhaar-enabled applications will be used for making pension payments, MNREGA payments, PDS distribution, scholarship payments etc.

The services that will be e-enabled by the state government at the function will include BPL rural housing scheme, higher education scholarship scheme, NREGA payments, LPG cylinder distribution, public distribution system and social security pension schemes.

The various other ongoing pilot projects at different locations will be telecasted live in the function.

The pilot projects, where the Aadhaar-enabled service delivery is going on, are PDS in Kakinada, East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh; social security payments, Aurangabad, Maharashtra; LPG cylinders delivery, Mysore, Karnataka; MNREGS payment, Ramgarh, Jharkhand and old age pension, West Tripura.

Nilekani also stated that during the function at Dudu, the 21st crore aadhaar letter will be handed over to a resident. UID has already issued the Aadhaar number to over 20 crores residents and plans to issue Aadhaar to 60 crores resident by 2012. “By 2014, one out of two Indians will have Aadhaar number”, Nilekani said.

Speaking about the expenditure incurred by UID so far, R S Sharma, director general, UIDAI, said that the authority has spent approximately Rs 2,050 crore so far, out of which around Rs 1,000 crore has been spent on enrolment process as UIDAI is spending Rs 50 per enrolment.

On the issue of non receipt of the Aadhaar number by residents, Nilekani mentioned that the same can now be downloaded for the website of the authority or a request for a duplicate document can be made to UIDAI.

Assuring that the card-holder information will not be shared with the user departments, Nilekani said that only online authentication will be facilitated through the card. “We will share only the name and address of the resident with banks for those users who have authorized the same while filling the enrolment form,” he added.

On the issue of the National Identification Authority Bill, Nilekani said that the parliamentary panel has suggested re-considering the bill and the view of the central government is awaited on same. He thanked the finance minister for his support in leveraging Aadhaar as a means for financial inclusion.

Minister of state for planning, science and technology & earth sciences Ashwini Kumar; deputy chairperson, planning commission, Montek singh Ahluwalia and minister of state for communications & IT, Sachin Pilot will also be present at the launch.

The prime minister will also be presenting the Aadhaar Governance Awards and the Aadhaar Excellence Awards at the function.