5647 - Multi-purpose identity cards await government approval

Multi-purpose identity cards await government approval BY AFTAB H. KOLA/OUR CORRESPONDENT    |    JULY 04, 2014 , 9 : 50 PM GST

Bangalore: Forget Aadhar card prepared by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to enrol and collect biometrics details of 600 million people of the country. Now, it is the Multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) which will be issued to all citizens. The federal Home Ministry is working towards reviving an earlier project which was stalled following differences between the Registrar General of India and Unique Identification Authority of India. A central public undertaking will be preparing the card which will carry at least 16 details of an individual and a unique national identity number assigned to each citizen. The Home Ministry has prepared a cabinet note and is awaiting nod from Home Minister Rajnath Singh to be put up for approval before the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The cards would be prepared after getting details required about individuals that would be recorded in the National Population Register. The card would roll out a scheme beyond 1.2 million citizens who had got the identity cards in the first phase of the project that covered 12 states and one union territory. First set of cards The first set of MNIC was distributed in May 2007. Over 1.2 million people from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Pondicherry have already obtained the cards. Those who have attained the age of 18 and above would be entitled to receive the card. The latest move by the National Democratic Alliance government also demonstrates that the UIDAI, which was raised under the Planning Commission with prominent entrepreneur Nandan Nilekarni as its head, is likely to lose currency it enjoyed during former prime minister Manmohan Singh's tenure. The government had then clarified that the Aadhaar is actually a number, not an identity card, linked to that number is a biometric record. The Home Ministry has asked the UIDAI to transfer whatever data collected to the RGI and the authority to continue to generate merely the numbers. Sources said that MNIC will be priced between Rs 32 and Rs35 which is cheaper when compared to Aadhar cards. The tamper-proof smart card will be embossed with at least 16 personal details of an individual that would be collected during the exercise of preparing national population register.