Plan panel nod to RIC may reopen home ministry-UIDAI battle
Posted: Wed, Mar 28 2012. 11:15 PM IST
New Delhi: The Planning Commission’s recommendation that the expenditure finance committee (EFC) approve the home ministry’s resident identity card (RIC) project may have reopened the fight between the home ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
A senior government official who didn’t want to be identified claimed that the Planning Commission has also recommended that RICs carry the Aadhaar number, making it unnecessary for UIDAI to send out letters to all enrolls. Mint couldn’t independently ascertain this.
Planning Commission member secretary Sudha Pillai had previously publicly raised issues about UIDAI’s inadequate financial processes only to have these dismissed by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Last week, Ahluwalia said an appraisal note had been submitted to EFC and that he wasn’t opposed to the RIC project. He said he was unaware of other details.
UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani couldn’t be reached for comment.
A senior UIDAI official who didn’t want to be identified said it would oppose any plan that meant not sending out a letter to enrollees. “A letter is completion of our process,” the official said. “In a sense a letter delivered to a resident is a check that he exists. The letter is the final closing piece in Aadhaar cycle and it should go to every resident”
The official added that UIDAI’s other objection has to do with the fact that RICs will only be given to people above the age of 18. “What will happen to people who are below this age?” he asked.
The home ministry, on the one side, and the Planning Commission and UIDAI on the other, had fought a bitter and all-too-public battle over the scope of the Aadhaar project because it overlapped, in some aspects, with the National Population Register project. A compromise was finally reached on 27 January that allowed the scope of UIDAI’s project to be expanded to 600 million and seemingly prevented duplication in the collection of biometric information. The National Population Registry, being put together by the Census department that falls under the home ministry, is to form the basis of the RIC project. Ahluwalia and Nilekani had previously opposed RIC.
The government official cited above said carrying the Aadhaar number on RICs would save the Rs. 22 UIDAI currently spends on sending each letter with the numbers to enrollees.
However, the UIDAI official cited above said the home ministry’s project would take time and is also against the spirit of the country’s information technology (IT) policy. “RIC will be delivered after a fairly prolonged process that could be couple of months or an year from now,” he said. “Also, we raised the point that we should adhere to the national IT policy that says we should move towards the online verification process in future. The RIC process is getting redundant.”
A home ministry official said the RIC despatch system would cost less since it would consolidate all the cards being sent to a family, rather than seek to deliver them individually as with the UID.
The RIC programme was launched in India’s nine coastal states after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The union home ministry is seeking to extend the scheme to the rest of the country and has sought Rs. 6,700 crore to fund the programme. The card uses a chip that carries data, photographs and fingerprints of the holder.
A second home ministry official said off-line verification was more feasible and effective than online methods.
“Not every one is online in the country. There is no uniformity of Internet and mobile services. This problem is worse in the northeast and bordering areas.”
sahil.m@livemint.com
Posted: Wed, Mar 28 2012. 11:15 PM IST
The panel also recommended that RICs carry the Aadhaar
number, said a govt official
Sahil Makkar
A senior government official who didn’t want to be identified claimed that the Planning Commission has also recommended that RICs carry the Aadhaar number, making it unnecessary for UIDAI to send out letters to all enrolls. Mint couldn’t independently ascertain this.
Planning Commission member secretary Sudha Pillai had previously publicly raised issues about UIDAI’s inadequate financial processes only to have these dismissed by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Last week, Ahluwalia said an appraisal note had been submitted to EFC and that he wasn’t opposed to the RIC project. He said he was unaware of other details.
UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani couldn’t be reached for comment.
A senior UIDAI official who didn’t want to be identified said it would oppose any plan that meant not sending out a letter to enrollees. “A letter is completion of our process,” the official said. “In a sense a letter delivered to a resident is a check that he exists. The letter is the final closing piece in Aadhaar cycle and it should go to every resident”
The official added that UIDAI’s other objection has to do with the fact that RICs will only be given to people above the age of 18. “What will happen to people who are below this age?” he asked.
The home ministry, on the one side, and the Planning Commission and UIDAI on the other, had fought a bitter and all-too-public battle over the scope of the Aadhaar project because it overlapped, in some aspects, with the National Population Register project. A compromise was finally reached on 27 January that allowed the scope of UIDAI’s project to be expanded to 600 million and seemingly prevented duplication in the collection of biometric information. The National Population Registry, being put together by the Census department that falls under the home ministry, is to form the basis of the RIC project. Ahluwalia and Nilekani had previously opposed RIC.
The government official cited above said carrying the Aadhaar number on RICs would save the Rs. 22 UIDAI currently spends on sending each letter with the numbers to enrollees.
However, the UIDAI official cited above said the home ministry’s project would take time and is also against the spirit of the country’s information technology (IT) policy. “RIC will be delivered after a fairly prolonged process that could be couple of months or an year from now,” he said. “Also, we raised the point that we should adhere to the national IT policy that says we should move towards the online verification process in future. The RIC process is getting redundant.”
A home ministry official said the RIC despatch system would cost less since it would consolidate all the cards being sent to a family, rather than seek to deliver them individually as with the UID.
The RIC programme was launched in India’s nine coastal states after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The union home ministry is seeking to extend the scheme to the rest of the country and has sought Rs. 6,700 crore to fund the programme. The card uses a chip that carries data, photographs and fingerprints of the holder.
A second home ministry official said off-line verification was more feasible and effective than online methods.
“Not every one is online in the country. There is no uniformity of Internet and mobile services. This problem is worse in the northeast and bordering areas.”
sahil.m@livemint.com
