Saubhadra Chatterji, Hindustan Times New Delhi, December 11, 2014
In keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed target of 2015 for universal Aadhaar coverage, a first-of-kind seven-day Aadhaar enrolment camp for lawmakers will be organised in Parliament from Thursday.
According to sources, out of the 790 MPs of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, “over 400 MPs” have not made their Aadhar cards so far. The move is also seen as the first step to introduce an Aadhaar-based payment for members of Parliament. After reviving the Aadhaar scheme the PM had, in September, asked the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to ensure 100% Aadhaar enrolment by June 2015.
Presently Aadhaar enrolment is about 68 crore and about 50 crore more people are expected to be enrolled in the next eight months.
Thursday’s camp is aimed at motivating the MPs in the hope that they will further motivate people in their constituencies to enroll with Aadhaar.
The seven-day long camp may also help officers and staff working in Parliament enrol for their unique identification number at a later stage.
Currently, members who attend Parliament during session mark their attendance in a register kept outside the House. Later, their attendance is manually computed and the daily allowance is added with the salaries.
The long term plans envisions installing of biometric readers to mark attendance which would automatically compute the allowances and transfer the amount into the respective MP’s bank account.