The New Indian Express
Last Updated : 28 Sep 2011 11:58:10 PM IST
The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), led by Nandan Nilekani, has run into rough weather with the Planning Commission objecting to the system of money management it follows. crore.Earlier, the finance ministry had found unacceptable its plea for an allocation of Rs15,000 crores. The commission’s objection stems from the fact that it does not follow the financial control systems in force in government offices. For instance, the financial controller of the UIDAI also wears the hat of an implementer of its programme compromising his much-vaunted detachment. Though it was set up as an ‘attached office’ of the Planning Commission, it has never been kept in the loop on the UIDAI’s functioning.
When the UPA conceived the idea of setting up the UIDAI, the purpose was limited to giving every citizen a unique identity card, which would contain all kinds of details about the person, including blood group, address, job, etc. After the arrival of Nilekani, there has been a churning process, as a result of which the UIDAI does not see the issuing of identity cards as the be all and end all of its task. It has drawn up an ambitious programme under which payments for work in programmes like the national rural job guarantee scheme would be made through a unique identity card-linked payment system.
The UIDAI’s grandiose plans have not instilled confidence in the labour and rural development ministries which find them too sophisticated to be true. Small wonder that even those who were initially enthusiastic about the project are no longer enamoured of it. Others continue to question its practice of gathering biometric details — pictures of the retina, thumb impressions, etc. — as a dangerous intrusion into the citizen’s privacy. Whether the benefits of the project are commensurate with the huge cost involved or not is also a matter of dispute. Given the questions raised, it would be appropriate to have a national debate on the whole unique identity card project.