chennai
Union home minister P. Chidambaram launching the distribution of resident identity card under coastal NPR (national population register) project at Pattipulam village in Kancheepuram district. —DC
Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Monday said his ministry was looking at ways to incorporate the Aadhaar number in the identity cards distributed to people as part of national population register (NPR). “It will give a special status to the identity card, as the government will be able to confirm the user of the card,” he added.
After handing over the first identity card under coastal NPR project to Ms Meena of Pattipulam village in Kancheepuram district on Monday, Mr Chidambaram said the ministry has so far collected data of 1.2 crore people and biometrics of 75 lakh persons in 3,331 villages.
“The ID cards are just a beginning to address security issues. We have been conducting census for the past 100 years, but specific details like citizen or foreigner status were never recorded. Post Mumbai attacks in 2008, the government has decided to issue cards with photograph to all people with details like name, father’s name, age, address, place of birth, profession along with biometric details,” he added.
Denying reports about differences with unique identification authority of India on Aadhaar cards, Mr Chidambaram confirmed that the home ministry would include the Aadhaar number in the NPR. “Aadhaar is only a number while NPR is a resident identity card,” he said, adding the culmination of the two would help in better governance.
“For example, if a student wins a scholarship, he only needs to open a bank account. The government will deposit the scholarship amount in his account and he can access it by using the smart card, which will prove his identity,” he said.