By Ramu Patil
Published: 01st December 2014 06:04 AM
BENGALURU: In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the BJP had termed Aadhaar as a ‘fraud’ perpetrated on the country and pledged to review its continuation if voted to power.
The subject was hotly debated in Bengaluru South, where Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani unsuccessfully contested against BJP national general secretary H N Ananth Kumar, now the minister for chemicals and fertilisers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. Contrary to claims made during the heat of electioneering, the BJP government is taking measures to strengthen the project and link it with various services.
“Our stand has been vindicated,” said a member of Nilekani’s core group. “We congratulate the prime minister for taking an apolitical decision on the national project,” he said.
The BJP leaders had raised several concerns such as the authenticity of data collected and the alleged grant of Aadhaar cards to illegal immigrants.
“During the tenure of the UPA government, the data collected was not verified properly. Now, verification and authentication of data is being done,” Ananth Kumar told Express.
On the continuation of the project, which was an issue during the election, he said: “The government has spent a lot of money on creating the database. We cannot allow it to go waste. We have to set right the anomalies to use the data. That process is on now.”
According to the minister, information collected for various government schemes and services will be used to authenticate the data. The government spent over `4,200 crore on the project, including the creation of infrastructure to collect and store data.
Meanwhile, the UIDAI is steadily going ahead with its enrollment drive and working with various agencies to ensure that demographics collected for issuing the Unique Identity Number are used in other services like passport, bank accounts and NREGA.
‘’Know Your Resident’ (KYR), which includes details like name, age and address, are collected while issuing the Aadhaar number. It can be used as KYC while opening bank accounts. “Reserve Bank of India has approved it, and it helps to reduce the time taken to produce and verify such basic details, especially for poor people who may not have other identify proofs,” said a senior UIDAI officer.
The KYR will soon be used by passport offices too. “Once the applicant gives his or her Aadhaar number and the finger print or iris as approval to access their details, the officials at the passport office will be able to immediately download all details from the UIDAI database,” the officer added.
Meanwhile, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs Ministry said that as of now, passport offices are not equipped to access demographic details directly from UIDAI database. “Suitable measures will be taken depending on the decision at the government level,” they added.
Full Coverage by 2016
UIDAI has an ambitious target of providing unique identity numbers to all citizens by 2016. Currently, 70 crore people are covered and now the focus of the project is on north Indian states including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
In Karnataka, 4.76 crore people have Aadhaar card numbers. “The enrollment drive is on to cover people who have not got the Aadhaar numbers. We have also been working with the departments to provide Aadhaar numbers to prisoners and children,” UIDAI Deputy Director General Ashok Dalwai told Express. “The process is also on to open permanent registration centres in Karnataka,” he said.