VIJAYAWADA, July 5, 2016
‘Aadhaar Act may be notified soon’
UIDAI Director GeneralA.B. Pandey
It will enable govt. to make mandatory for any initiative or welfare scheme, he says
Aadhaar can be made mandatory for any initiative or welfare scheme as per the discretion of State and Central governments, said Unique Identification Authority of India, Director General and Mission Director A.B. Pandey.
Announcing that over 102 crore persons in the country now had Aadhaar card and unique identity numbers, Mr. Pandey said the Central government would soon notify the Aadhaar Act, 2016, enabling the government to make Aadhaar mandatory.
He was speaking at the two-day National Workshop on Aadhaar Enabled Applications inaugurated in city on Thursday.
“Though Aadhaar Act sailed through both the Houses of Parliament quickly, time was taken to form various regulations. Now we have given our consent of readiness to the government and the Act may be notified at any moment. Once the Act is notified, the governments can ask for the beneficiary to provide Aadhaar,” Mr. Pandey said.
“As per the Act, Aadhaar can be practically used for everything. Section 7 of it says the Central government or the State government can make Aadhaar mandatory for any service, subsidy or benefit that is being given from the Consolidated Fund of India. It also enables a beneficiary who does not have Aadhaar to apply for it immediately. He or she will not be denied of service rather be assisted in getting an Aadhaar. But a beneficiary can’t deny producing their Aadhaar or applying for it,” he said.
He said 96.4 per cent of adults in the country now had Aadhaar and Aadhaar had been linked to 27.63 crore bank accounts, 12.87 crore LPG consumers, 13.66 crore ration cards and 7.02 crore MGNREGS workers.