This refers to the report “Chidambaram takes UID turf war to Manmohan Singh” (Jan. 20). As a citizen, I am anguished to read that the UPA government, after spending Rs 672 crore of taxpayers' money on issuing a unique ID number to all, and making millions of citizens spend their valuable time and energy in visiting UIDAI centres, stand in long queues and furnish the data required from them, is still undecided about which agency is supposed to capture the biometric data.
Why does the government take the people for a ride? Could it not finalise its plan and methodology before spending such a huge sum? What a sad reflection on the functioning of the government!
S.P. Asokan,
Chennai
As usual, the victim of the ‘war' — between the Planning Commission and the Home Ministry — is the general public. First, we went to the selected centres of UIDAI for giving biometric data. We were then informed that the Registrar General of India (RGI) was the authority concerned and we would not get an ID card unless we registered there. After a few days, we went to the RGI centre (arranged by the local panchayat) and underwent the same process of identification once again. Both identifications were done by agencies, not by the government departments.
The whole family, including the aged, sick, women and children had to undergo this process twice which meant travel, time and strain. Why this duplication of a huge, costly, important work? One wonders whether the Unique Identification project will ever see the light of day.
Narayanankutty Machat,
Palakkad
After spending crores on the UID project, the UPA government is in utter confusion. The RGI is the appropriate authority to collect the biometric data of the population. But the government constituted the UIDAI, which entrusted the work to post offices and private consultants. Many people even paid money to private consultants thinking the UID card is like the ration card and can be submitted as a guarantee for bank loans.
Karavadi Raghava Rao,
Vijayawada