The turf war between the home ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Planning Commission over who will perform the task of collecting biometric data of the country?s population was amicably resolved on Friday.
Collection of biometric data is a prerequisite for Aadhar, the programme to give a unique identity card for every Indian resident, and integral to the National Population Register under preparation.
As per a decision of the relevant Cabinet committee, the UIDAI, now mandated to collect biometric data from 200 million residents in 16 states and Union territories, will be authorised to collect data and enrol from another 400 million people in these states/UTs.
The National Population Register under the home ministry will have the exclusive mandate to collect the data from the rest of the country. This means that in states where the UIDAI has made headway, the NPR won’t duplicate the work and will accept the UIDAI data.
On the home ministry?s concerns over the security aspect of UIDAI data, its chairman Nandan Nilekani said after the Cabinet panel’s meeting: ?We will review the security concerns in the next six to eight weeks and begin the process of collection of data from April.?
Home minister P Chidambaram said in case of ?discrepancies between UIDAI data and NPR data, NPR will prevail?. The new system would be as secure as humanly possible, he said, adding: ?Aadhaar (issued by the UIDAI) is voluntary while NPR is mandatory.?
Chidambaram, who earlier wrote to the Prime Minister asking for clarity on the mandates of the two agencies, said ?there was no difference with the Planning Commission over the issuance of the numbers?.
The Cabinet panel also approved commencement of the third phase of the UID scheme at an estimated cost of R8,814.75 crore, which subsumes the earlier approval of R3,023.01 crore.
“The NPR enrolment will continue as envisaged, but if in the course of enrolment a person indicates he/she is already enrolled for Aadhaar, the biometric data will not be captured by NPR. Instead, the Aadhaar number/enrolment number will be recorded in NPR and the biometric data will be sourced from the UIDAI,? said a release after the Cabinet meeting.
?The modalities and detailed protocol for smooth implementation of simultaneous enrolment by the non-Registrar General of India (RGI) Registry of UIDAI and the RGI will be finalised by the IMCC (inter-ministerial coordination committee) within the overall directions given by the CC-UIDAI (Cabinet Committee on UIDAI). The enrolment through Non-RGI Registrars of UIDAI will be for an additional 40 crore population,? it added.
Of the Rs 8814.75 crore that has been approved for incurring expenditure up to March 2017, Rs 2412.67 crore would be towards recurring expenditure including IT operational cost and recurring establishment cost and Rs6402.08 crore would be towards non-recurring project related expenditure.
There is a difference in the method of data collection by the UIDAI and the RGI (which oversees the NPR). While the RGI personnel actually visit households, the UIDAI invites people to come to designated centres and uses hired organisations.
