Last Modified: Thu, Mar 17 2016. 01 19 PM IST
Section 54 of the Aadhaar bill provides a comprehensive list of all the regulations that UIDAI will be required to issue
Shreeja Sen
The Unique Identification Authority of India will be a statutory body with the power to issue regulations. These regulations cover several areas, the framework for which the Aadhaar bill provides. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint
New Delhi: The Aadhaar bill is just a signature away from becoming a law, but the government still has much to do to shape its financial inclusion plans through the unique identification number.
The Unique Identification Authority of India will be a statutory body with the power to issue regulations. These regulations cover several areas, the framework for which the Aadhaar bill provides.
Section 54 provides a comprehensive list of all the regulations that UIDAI will be required to issue.
UIDAI has the power to specify demographic and biometric information to be collected under the scheme by regulation, including the manner in which they’ll be collected.
Methods of data management, security protocol and technological standards will be done through regulations.
The functions of the Central Identities Data Repository will be given by UIDAI.
There are at least 20 other aspects on which regulations will be needed.
Some members of the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) doesn’t have a majority, were unsatisfied that such wide powers should be vested on UIDAI.
“Whatever information the UIDAI wants to collect, it should be empowered by Parliament. No suo moto authority should be granted to UIDAI. In order to remove ambiguity, it should be part of the law,” Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley countered that all regulations by UIDAI will be approved by Parliament.