Sribala Vadlapatla, TNN | Nov 18, 2014, 03.13AM IST
Aadhaar cards for various facilities, schemes and subsidies ranging from pensions to property registrations.
HYDERABAD: The Aadhaar card is back in business. The scheme launched by the UPA government did not find support with the succeeding NDA regime, but during the last few weeks, the Union as well as the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments, have been asking for Aadhaar cards for various facilities, schemes and subsidies ranging from pensions to property registrations.
Word is around that Aadhaar cards might also be required for passports in the near future.
Due to the recent Supreme Court ruling that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory for various facilities and subsidies, it is being silently linked to the schemes rather than being insisted upon. While the Centre has hinted that the Aadhaar card could become necessary for issuing new passports in the near future, banks holding central government pension accounts are asking for the same for accepting annual life certificates from pensioners.
The AP government has linked Aadhaar to several schemes, including issuing driving licences, vehicle registration by transport department, land registration by municipal administration department, ration cards, pensions, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Modified Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme for LPG (MDBTL) as well as the loan waiver scheme for farmers.
Together, AP and Telangana claim to have provided 95 per cent of the population with Aadhaar numbers. The initiatives of the two governments clearly indicate that the Aadhaar is not just for BPL citizens. "By checking the Aadhaar number, we are able to establish bonafides of property owners. This brings about transparency and weeds out irregularities," AP municipal administration and urban development commissioner Vani Mohan said.
The AP transport department has commenced a pilot enumeration of vehicles with the help of self-help group (SHG) women to link the owners' information with Aadhaar data. "Through this, we are able to find out how many vehicles a person owns and whether he is paying the stipulated tax for the same, thus hopipng to check tax evasion," AP transport minister Siddha Raghava Rao said. Anyone owning a second vehicle would have to pay higher road tax but since the information has not been tabulated properly, many are getting away by not paying the same, transport department sources said.
Authorities are also taking the Aadhaar route to weed out bogus voter cards. "It's a pilot project, wherein we are mapping voter ID cards with their Aadhaar data in Chittoor district. If we get good results, we will implement this throughout the state," V Venkateswar Rao, additional chief electoral officer of AP, said.
While these are state government initiatives, the Centre is reportedly contemplating linking Aadhaar cards with issuance of passports as well. Prior police verification for issue of fresh passports may soon be a thing of the past.