Bengaluru: Around 26 lakh primary and high school students from government, aided, and private schools across Karnataka are reportedly being deprived of midday meals, scholarships, and other schemes due to failure of Aadhaar authentication with the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS).

The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) has expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in completing Aadhaar authentication, despite the process being underway for the past two years, as reported by The Hindu on Tuesday.

The Commissioner of Public Instruction has decided to take disciplinary action against the officials responsible for the delay. A seven-day deadline has been set to complete the Aadhaar authentication process.

The DSEL has been working on the Aadhaar authentication process alongside SATS for the past two years to ensure the proper implementation of the midday meal programme, scholarships, and other initiatives, while also gathering accurate data on the number of students.

Out of a total of 1.04 crore students in the state from classes 1 to 10, only 78 lakh have successfully completed the Aadhaar authentication process, the report stated. Around 18 lakh students’ Aadhaar records remain unauthenticated in the system. Additionally, about 8 lakh students had their Aadhaar authenticated, but it was deemed unsuccessful due to mismatches between the student's details and the information in Aadhaar and SATS.

A senior official of DSEL stated that if Aadhaar authentication with SATS fails, it will impact the implementation of the midday meal and other programmes for school students. Inaccurate student numbers may lead to the Union Government objecting to the release of funds. “In addition, other departments, including the Social Welfare Department, Backward Classes Welfare Department and Minority Welfare Department, will not be able to reach the students with other schemes, including scholarships. Aadhaar authentication with SATS is the only solution for all these problems,” the official was quoted as saying by the news outlet.

K.V. Trilokchandra, Commissioner of DPI, has issued a circular to all Deputy Directors of Public Instruction (DDPIs), Block Education Officers (BEOs) and other department officials, instructing them to complete the Aadhaar authentication process within the given time frame.

He mentioned that Aadhaar authentication is mandatory with SATS to deliver various government schemes to children. "The Aadhaar authentication process has been simplified recently and all students Aadhaar authentication with SATS process will be completed soon," he added.

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Ahmedabad, May 2 (PTI): Gujarat Titans inched closer to sealing a playoff spot with a 38-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match here on Friday.

Invited to bat, skipper Shubman Gill scored a 38-ball 76 before Jos Buttler slammed 64 off 37 deliveries for the Titans.

In reply, Abhishek Sharma (74) gave SRH a solid start but GT bowlers stopped the visitors at 186 for 6.

Brief Scores:

Gujarat Titans 224 for 6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 76, Jos Buttler 64; Jaydev Unadkat 3/35).

Sunrisers Hyderbad 186 for 6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 74; Mohammed Siraj 2/33, Prasidh Krishna 2/19).