Abhishek Bhalla | Mail Today | New Delhi, June 22, 2014 | UPDATED 09:43 IST
The UIDAI project was conceived by the Planning Commission during the UPA rule.
The new government is contemplating whether the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) responsible for issuing Aadhaar should be replaced with National Identity Cards under the National Population Register (NPR) project of the Home Ministry.
Sources said a plan is being discussed and it is likely that NPR will take precedence over UIDAI. The NDA government had launched the NPR project in 2003, but it faced hurdles during the UPA tenure. The UIDAI project became the UPA government's flagship programme. With the NDA in power again, there are indications that the revival of NPR to issue National Identity Cards will be speeded up.
On Wednesday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed NPR which the NDA government claims to be the biggest security and e-governance initiative in the world. He was given a presentation that stressed its importance to national security. The current status of the project and further course of action were also discussed.
Effective steps
A voter's card is one of the many documents Indians possess to establish their identity.
Singh directed officials to take effective steps to take the NPR project to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of the National Register of Indian Citizens. He instructed that all proposals, including the updating of database through linkages with the birth and death registration system and the issuance of National Identity Cards to citizens, be brought for approval at the earliest.
While identity cards have been issued by the Registrar General of India in coastal areas, the same could not be achieved in other parts of the country. There were security concerns raised over Aadhaar as there have been irregularities reported in the biometric data. The biometric data captured by NPR is said to be more reliable and scientific. This is one of the reasons being given for preference to NPR.
A sum of Rs.3,500 crore was spent on UIDAI and dumping it now could further escalate the controversy over the scheme, which has been opposed by activists on grounds that it was illegal since a project like this should not have come through an executive order as it needed parliamentary consent.
People who have been issued Aadhaar will need to go through the more accurate and secure parameters being followed by NPR. While Aadhaar follows five parameters, NPR requires 16.
Sources said while a proposal to issue National Identity Cards through NPR will be sent to the Cabinet for approval, abolishing UIDAI might not happen.
"There is a plan to merge both projects. The data gathered by UIDAI can be used by NPR. It's not that the entire project will be scrapped," a home ministry official said.
Violation
With the Home Minister giving his consent, activists resisting the move have written to Singh, reminding him that PM Modi had earlier opposed the move in a letter written to former PM Manmohan Singh on October 6, 2011. Activists are arguing that an identity card like this violates constitutional rights and that many countries have abandoned such projects.
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nda-govt-planning-to-merge-uidai-with-npr/1/368006.html